Dictionary

gravitate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɹævɪteɪt/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin gravitāt-, past participial stem of gravitō.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To move under the force of gravity.
   • Theſe, who have nature's ſteps with care purſued, That matter is with active force endued, That all its parts magnetic power exert, And to each other gravitate, aſſert. 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation; a philosophical poem in seven books, book II:
2. (figuratively, intransitive) To tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity.
   • The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. 1776, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations:
   • A considerable amount of new rolling stock has been built for the main line services during recent years, and the older stock has gravitated to the secondary and branch lines. 1940 May, “The Irish Railways Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 296:
   • The guests slowly gravitated to the kitchen.
   • Children naturally gravitate to such a big, friendly man.
   • I lingered with seven new friends from Chicago on a back balcony, where concert attendees waiting to be convinced traditionally congregate. The more we drank, the farther up front we gravitated. I finished the show a few feet from the stage. 2012 March 30, Joe Levy, “Rockers at Sea”, in The New York Times:
   • As the presence of any considerable number of priests on an ocean steamer is supposed to bring rough weather, so the addition of a few hundred parsons to the population of Edinburgh is believed to induce rain,—or perhaps I should say, more rain. 1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 8, in Penelope’s Progress […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
   • Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them. 1923, Elbert Hubbard, J.B. Runs Things:

Forms

Deriveds

degravitate · nongravitating · selfgravitating · gravitative · antigravitate

Relateds

gravitation

Translations (12)

fi suuntautua (to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity) · pt gravitar (to move under the force of gravity) · pl grawitować (to move under the force of gravity) · tl dumagsin (to move under the force of gravity) · ru гравитировать (to move under the force of gravity) · pl grawitować (to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity) · fi hakeutua (to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity) · ga imtharraing (to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity) · eo graviti (to move under the force of gravity) · bg гравитирам (to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity) · bg бивам притеглен (to move under the force of gravity) · ga imtharraing (to move under the force of gravity)