Dictionary

mirate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /maɪˈɹeɪt/
• /ˈmaɪ.ɹeɪt/

Etymology

Back-formation from miration on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix). Ultimately from Latin mīror (“to marvel at”).

Meanings

1. (Southern-US, uncommon) To marvel at.
   • With Bud in her arms and Babe at her heels, she rushed from one part of the court to another, laughing boisterously at Paulo's monkey pranks, and "mirating" over Francesca's tawdry finery. 1893, M.E.M. Davis, “Judy's Mardi Gras”, in Wide Awake:
   • That paper-doll mother was still mirating at her own flesh and blood having lice. Rosacoke smiled and thought, "That is the one funny thing since Heywood Betts and his Honolulu shirt." 1999, Reynolds Price, A Singular Family: Rosacoke and Her Kin, →ISBN, page 312:
   • I should have sensed the waves of embarrassment she was radiating. But I didn't. I went right on “mirating” till I finally got around to saying they were “lovely.” Well, that was all my wife could take. “You've said enough,” she remarked, drily. 1960, “My Affair with a Weekly”, in The North Carolina Miscellany, published 2012, →ISBN, page 209:

Forms

Relateds

list in admire