gate
pronunciation
How to pronounce gate in British English:
UK [ɡeɪt]
How to pronounce gate in American English:
US [ɡeɪt]
-
- Noun:
- a door-like movable barrier in a fence or wall
- a computer circuit with several inputs but only one output that can be activated by particular combinations of inputs
- total admission receipts at a sports event
- passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark
-
- Verb:
- supply with a gate
- control with a valve or other device that functions like a gate
- restrict (school boys') movement to the dormitory or campus as a means of punishment
Word Origin
- gate
- gate: Of the two English words gate, only one survives in general use. Gate ‘doorlike structure’ [OE] comes from a prehistoric Germanic *gatam, whose other descendants, including Dutch gat ‘hole, opening’, suggest that it originally denoted an ‘opening in a wall’ rather than the ‘structure used to close such an opening’. Irish has borrowed it as geata.The other gate ‘way, path’ [13] now survives only in street-names, particularly in the North of England (for instance, York’s Micklegate and Coppergate); its other main meaning, ‘way of walking’, has been partitioned off since the 18th century in the spelling gait. It was borrowed from Old Norse gata ‘path, passage’, which comes ultimately from prehistoric Germanic *gatwōn.
- gate (n.)
- "opening, entrance," Old English geat (plural geatu) "gate, door, opening, passage, hinged framework barrier," from Proto-Germanic *gatan (cognates: Old Norse gat "opening, passage," Old Saxon gat "eye of a needle, hole," Old Frisian gat "hole, opening," Dutch gat "gap, hole, breach," German Gasse "street"), of unknown origin. Meaning "money collected from selling tickets" dates from 1896 (short for gate money, 1820). Gate-crasher is from 1926 as "uninvited party guest;" 1925 in reference to motorists who run railway gates. Finnish katu, Lettish gatua "street" are Germanic loan-words.
- gate (v.)
- "provide with a gate," 1906, from gate (n.). Originally of moulds. Related: Gated (1620s). Gated community recorded by 1989 (earliest reference to Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, Calif.).
Example
- 1. The bus is leaving from the gate 15 .
- 2. But behind the gate gabriel oak was watching too .
- 3. The flight number is 301 at gate two .
- 4. Such a gate length would keep moore 's law rolling for several years .
- 5. Keeping her cloak over her head , lizette thanked the giants and asked the way to the gate to the north .