regurgitate

verb

re·gur·gi·tate | \ (ˌ)rē-ˈgər-jə-ˌtāt

regurgitated; regurgitating

Definition of regurgitate

intransitive verb

: to become thrown or poured back

transitive verb

: to throw or pour back or out from or as if from a cavity regurgitate food memorized facts to regurgitate on the exam

Did You Know? More Example Sentences Learn More about regurgitate

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Did You Know?

Something regurgitated has typically been taken in, at least partially digested, and then spit back out . . . either literally or figuratively. The word often appears in biological contexts (e.g., in describing how some birds feed their chicks by regurgitating incompletely digested food), or in references to ideas or information that have been acquired and restated. A student, for example, might be expected to learn information from a textbook or a teacher and then regurgitate it for a test. Regurgitate, which entered the English vocabulary in the mid-17th century, is of Latin origin and traces back to the Latin word for "whirlpool," which is gurges.

Examples of regurgitate in a Sentence

The bird regurgitates to feed its young. The bird regurgitates food to feed its young. She memorized the historical dates only to regurgitate them on the exam. The speaker was just regurgitating facts and figures.

Recent Examples on the Web

At the same time, a lot of stuff looks the same, with trends endlessly regurgitated on Instagram and reproduced by brand after brand. — Eliza Brooke, Vox, "How the Great Recession influenced a decade of design," 27 Dec. 2018 My server can then present this card to the chef, instead of having to regurgitate the list, which could result in the server forgetting to communicate a certain allergy or some other detail getting lost in translation. — Kendra Chanae Chapman, SELF, "7 Things People With Food Allergies Have to Deal With Every Day," 10 July 2018 Regardless of the type of diverticulum, many patients complain of difficulty swallowing, bad breath, and regurgitating food after eating. — Colin Huntley, Philly.com, "Medical Mystery: What caused old man's swallowing trouble?," 29 June 2018 That regurgitated flawed logic is contradictory to the fundamental nature of protests. — Michael Harriot, The Root, "Donald Trump Admits the NFL Protests Actually Worked," 8 June 2018 Do not try to remove a tick with a hot match or petroleum jelly, WebMD says, as that could cause the tick to regurgitate infected fluids into the wound. — Dwight Adams, Indianapolis Star, "Diseases from mosquito and tick bites are on rise in U.S. Here's what you can do about it.," 1 May 2018 Media and social media amplify and regurgitate it endlessly. — Naperville Sun, "Letters to the Editor: Time for moderate views to take center stage, too many anti-Trump opinions in paper, more," 6 July 2018 Two romantic comedies with similar star power (Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher versus Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake) regurgitating the exact same plot (mostly-platonic friends who sleep together) coming out in the exact same year (2011). — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, "The Rom-Com Renaissance Is Here Thanks To Netflix," 22 June 2018 Do not burn, squeeze, twist or smother the tick, since this may cause it to regurgitate. — Joyce Sakamoto, Washington Post, "Ticks and mosquitoes are ready to deliver disease in a bite, but you can stop them," 18 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'regurgitate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.