regurgitate

verb

re·​gur·​gi·​tate (ˌ)rē-ˈgər-jə-ˌtāt 

regurgitated; regurgitating

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?

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 has 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 latter half of the 16th 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

Unlike mutual funds, which regurgitate capital gain dividends onto helpless shareholders, stock ETFs rarely distribute taxable gains. —William Baldwin, Forbes.com, 4 Apr. 2025

This is the strength of an LLM sales model—not one that simply regurgitates information, but one that persuades, reassures, and guides customers like a top-tier salesperson. —Michael Ashley, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025

On Thursday, music publishers got a small win in a copyright fight alleging that Anthropic's Claude chatbot regurgitates song lyrics without paying licensing fees to rights holders. —Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 3 Jan. 2025

In an interview with far-right talk show host Tucker Carlson on Friday, Trump's lead Ukraine negotiator Steve Witkoff praised Putin and regurgitated talking points the Kremlin uses to legitimize its invasion. —Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin regurgitatus, past participle of regurgitare, from Latin re- + Late Latin gurgitare to engulf, from Latin gurgit-, gurges whirlpool — more at voracious

First Known Use

1578, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense

Rhymes for regurgitate

• abbreviate
• accelerate
• accommodate
• accumulate
• acuminate
• adjudicate
• adulterate
• affiliate
• agglomerate
• agglutinate
• alleviate
• amalgamate

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Kids Definition

regurgitate

verb

re·​gur·​gi·​tate (ˈ)rē-ˈgər-jə-ˌtāt 

regurgitated; regurgitating

: to throw or be thrown back or out again

regurgitate undigested food

regurgitation

(ˌ)rē-ˌgər-jə-ˈtā-shən

noun

Medical Definition

regurgitate

verb

re·​gur·​gi·​tate (ˈ)rē-ˈgər-jə-ˌtāt 

regurgitated; regurgitating

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 swallowed food into the mouth