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

Disappointingly, James and Andra’s selection process also included regurgitating harmful intra-community stereotypes about bisexual people. — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, "The Slow, Messy Evolution of LGBTQ Dating Shows," 4 July 2019 Quantum states cannot be simply copied and regurgitated, as is done with classical information. — Anil Ananthaswamy, Scientific American, "The Quantum Internet Is Emerging, One Experiment at a Time," 19 June 2019 Despite that misstep, Pei returned to the motif after the critical and popular triumph of the Louvre pyramid, ill-advisedly regurgitating a glass pyramid for his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum of 1987–1995 in Cleveland. — Martin Filler, The New York Review of Books, "I.M. Pei: Establishment Modernism Lite," 24 May 2019 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

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.