vibrate
pronunciation
How to pronounce vibrate in British English:
UK [vaɪˈbreɪt]
How to pronounce vibrate in American English:
US [ˈvaɪbreɪt]
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- Verb:
- shake, quiver, or throb; move back and forth rapidly, usually in an uncontrolled manner
- move or swing from side to side regularly
- be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action
- sound with resonance
- feel sudden intense sensation or emotion
Word Origin
- vibrate
- vibrate: [17] Vibrate comes from Latin vibrāre ‘move quickly to and fro, shake’. This went back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European base *wib-, *weib- ‘move quickly to and fro’, which also produced English weave ‘move to and fro’ (as in ‘weave through the traffic’), whip, and wipe.=> weave, whip, wipe
- vibrate (v.)
- 1610s (intransitive) "move to and fro;" 1660s, "swing to and fro;" from Latin vibratus, past participle of vibrare "set in tremulous motion, move quickly to and fro, quiver, tremble, shake," from PIE *wib-ro-, from root *weip- "to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically, move quickly to and fro" (cognates: Lithuanian wyburiu "to wag" (the tail), Danish vippe, Dutch wippen "to swing," Old English wipan "to wipe"). Transitive sense "cause to vibrate" is from c. 1700. Related: Vibrated; vibrating.
Example
- 1. Even molecules that differ by a single atom can vibrate quite differently .
- 2. The sea began to vibrate with waves that spread out in a circle .
- 3. Recycling is tricky : just half a penny 's worth of neodymium helps a mobile phone vibrate .
- 4. So any electric current will then cause the fibers to vibrate .
- 5. You 're more lightly to hear / feel the vibrate alert if your phone is in your pocket compared to in a bag .