Dictionary

lubricate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈluːbrɪkeɪt/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lūbricātus, perfect passive participle of lūbricō (“make slippery”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from lūbricus (“slippery”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *slewbʰ- (“slip, slide”).

Meanings

1. To make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant.
   • If your bicycle chain is squeaking you should lubricate it.
2. (humorous) To cause someone to become drunk, especially to make them more sociable or talkative.
   • At Göbekli Tepe, a site in what is now modern-day Turkey we'll talk about more below, hunter-gatherers convened regularly throughout the tenth to eighth millennia BCE to feast on gazelles, build circular structures, and erect enormous T-shaped limestone pillars carved with mysterious pictograms and animal forms–probably all while well-lubricated with beer. 2021, Edward Slingerland, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization:
   • They listened with wonder and pride at their album as it played several times throughout the afternoon, with Cosmo lubricating them with beer and whiskey. 2021, Robert A. Webster, Fossils:

Forms

Deriveds

lubricant · overlubricate · lubrication · lubricator · lube · mislubricate · lubricin · underlubricate · lubricative · relubricate

Relateds

lubricity

Synonyms

lube

Translations (39)

hu síkosít (to make slippery or smooth) · lld onje (to make slippery or smooth) · ca lubricar (to make slippery or smooth) · la lūbricō (to make slippery or smooth) · de schmieren (to make slippery or smooth) · tr yağlamak (to make slippery or smooth) · sv smörja (to make slippery or smooth) · cs mazat (to make slippery or smooth) · hu megolajoz (to make slippery or smooth) · es lubricar (to make slippery or smooth) · eo lubriki (to make slippery or smooth) · hu bezsíroz (to make slippery or smooth) · hu zsíroz (to make slippery or smooth) · pt lubrificar (to make slippery or smooth) · hu beolajoz (to make slippery or smooth) · fr lubrifier (to make slippery or smooth) · bg смазвам (to make slippery or smooth) · es lubrificar (to make slippery or smooth) · mi whakamaene (to make slippery or smooth) · fi voidella (to make slippery or smooth) · ota یاغلامق (to make slippery or smooth) · ca lubrificar (to make slippery or smooth) · it lubrificare (to make slippery or smooth) · io lubrifikar (to make slippery or smooth) · ro lubrifia (to make slippery or smooth) · km ដាក់ប្រេង (to make slippery or smooth) · ja 注油する (to make slippery or smooth) · tl danlugan (to make slippery or smooth) · cmn 潤滑 /润滑 (to make slippery or smooth) · gd lìomh (to make slippery or smooth) · el λιπαίνω (to make slippery or smooth) · nl smeren (to make slippery or smooth) · ru сма́зать (to make slippery or smooth) · pms lubrifiché (to make slippery or smooth) · hu ken (to make slippery or smooth) · hu olajoz (to make slippery or smooth) · et määrima (to make slippery or smooth) · lld onjer (to make slippery or smooth) · ru сма́зывать (to make slippery or smooth)