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  1. estivate love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To spend the summer, as at a special place.
  2. v. Zoology To pass the summer in a dormant or torpid state.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To pass the summer, as in a given place or in a given manner.
  2. In zoology, to pass into or remain in the summer sleep, as some mollusks; be dormant in summer.

Wiktionary

  1. v. intransitive To go into stasis or torpor in the summer months.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. sleep during summer

Etymologies

  1. Latin aestīvāre, aestīvāt-, from aestīvus, estival; see estival. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “They hibernate — they estivate and they hibernate — until the following January, when you will have forgotten what a pain it was to follow the show week after unrewarding week, and you'll be able to feel excited by the return of the boinging theme music, and the old panel of judges, who will file in wearily and act pained that they have to sit through it all again.”

    I think I'm going to have to stop watching "American Idol."

  • “I am going to put a layer of leaf mold and ice cubes in the basement and estivate.”

    Summertime ...

  • “I'll bet snails can estivate for a really long time, especially desert forms that only rarely encounter damp conditions.”

    Why I am sceptical of Brenda's story

  • “A few freshwater mussels are known to estivate for a few years-Wendel Haag had a Uniomerus on his desk from when he found it until he finished his dissertation.”

    Why I am sceptical of Brenda's story

  • “Other animals, such as lungfish and tortoises, burrow into the mud and estivate to survive.”

    Mission Of Honor

  • “At first it looked like a vast blue fort or Valhalla; but when they began to tuck the coarse meadow hay into the crevices, and this became covered with rime and icicles, it looked like a venerable moss-grown and hoary ruin, built of azure-tinted marble, the abode of Winter, that old man we see in the almanac — his shanty, as if he had a design to estivate with us.”

    Walden~ Chapter 16 (historical)

  • “At first it looked like a vast blue fort or Valhalla; but when they began to tuck the coarse meadow hay into the crevices, and this became covered with rime and icicles, it looked like a venerable moss-grown and hoary ruin, built of azure-tinted marble, the abode of Winter, that old man we see in the almanac, -- his shanty, as if he had a design to estivate with us.”

    Walden, or Life in the woods

  • “I did not see any live Albinaria, which estivate on rock surfaces and are, therefore, easy to spot.”

    SNAIL'S TALES

  • “They do not know whether to run, estivate, or start digging. ”

    Dirge

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hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. log z's
  1. catch some z's
  1. slumber
  1. kip
  1. sleep

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. aestivate

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  • knitandpurl "Galápagos giant tortoises crop the lawn. Burmese stars, Egyptians, Chacos form Argentina, all snooze, munch, estivate under leaf cover, bask, and breed, sometimes noisily, with males groaning and shells clattering."
    "Slow and Steady" by William Finnegan, p 59 of the January 23, 2012 issue of the New Yorker Feb 14, 2012

  • knitandpurl "I suppose I passed my youth in the amateur fashion common to certain youths born to a gracious life, to the luxury, calm, and voluptuousness of my generation—never mind which precisely—of European bourgeoisie who estivated on the North Sea or Atlantic coast rather than the Mediterranean or by placid Alpine lakes rather than along the lagoons and grand hotels of Venice."
    -Tintin in the New World by Frederic Tuten, p 135 Jul 10, 2008

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‘estivate’ has been looked up 2323 times, loved by 7 people, added to 27 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.