Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cause (liquid, for example) to pass through a porous substance or small holes; filter.
- v. To pass or ooze through: Water percolated the sand.
- v. To make (coffee) in a percolator.
- v. To drain or seep through a porous material or filter.
- v. Informal To become lively or active.
- v. Informal To spread slowly or gradually.
- n. A liquid that has been percolated.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To strain through; cause to pass through small interstices, as a liquor; filter: literally and figuratively.
- To pass through small interstices, as a liquor; filter: as, water percolates through a porous stone.
- n. That which has percolated or passed through a filter or strainer; a filtered liquid.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To pass a liquid through a porous substance; to filter.
- v. intransitive To drain or seep through a porous substance.
- v. transitive To make (coffee) in a percolator.
- v. intransitive (figuratively) To spread slowly or gradually; to slowly become noticed or realised.
- n. rare A liquid that has been percolated.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cause to pass through fine interstices, as a liquor; to filter; to strain.
- v. To pass through fine interstices; to filter.
WordNet 3.0
- v. prepare in a percolator
- v. pass through
- v. permeate or penetrate gradually
- n. the product of percolation
- v. gain or regain energy
- v. spread gradually
- v. cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in order to extract a soluble constituent
Etymologies
- From Latin percōlāre ("to filter"), itself, from per- ("through") + colare ("to strain") (from colum ("a strainer"), of unknown origin). (Wiktionary)
- Latin percōlāre, percōlāt- : per-, per- + cōlāre, to filter (from cōlum, sieve). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I'm still processing this 'call to arms' and personally think it needs to percolate from the bottom up not the Government down.”
“After I let the idea percolate for a time, I decided against pursuing that course for something with much less pressure.”
“Cherry let the idea percolate with ABC executives because he knew it was a "pretty risky proposition.”
“So, we'll wait for things to kind of percolate, you know, the sun goes to work in Atlanta out ahead of the system and things do get -- start to get a little bit turbulent with that strong, well, now March, almost end of March sunshine and, boy, spring just a couple days away.”
“I let the idea percolate for awhile and then decided I must go…not in the sense of being a “groupy”, but rather in the sense of honoring the deep heart connection with Madeleine’s writing of which I wrote in my initial response.”
“At very high fields, the filaments formed an interconnected network across which charges could travel, or 'percolate'.”
“percolate" and keep going up and down in the organization.”
“Like the highly discredited theory of "trickle-down" economics, there is a belief that this "eco-leadership" will somehow percolate into our collective consciousness and create demand for environmental goods and services at all levels of the economy.”
The Guardian: Hypocrisy of champagne environmentalists is deceitful and distracting | Ed Gillespie
“Senior leadership is still important: There need to be forward-thinking leaders who "allow for the culture of ideas to percolate up," says Dr. Robinson.”
“I like finishing stories that percolate and percolate and finally go, and then other people like them too.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘percolate’.
-
Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 202 more...
-
filter
strain rain, porous apour, per-meate, extravasate, glomerulus, percolate, per-collate, bitumastic, passband, Proxomitron, reredos, sporgery and 27 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
-
Latin Spelling Bee List
need to know these words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
inane, ambivalent, incriminate, interrupt, amicable, meticulous, animosity, curriculum, electoral, transect, condolences, bugle and 132 more...
-
dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
-
generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
-
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
-
RocknRolla (2008)
Words from 2008 'RocknRolla' film.
drip, consent, foothold, bricks and mortar, mortar, councillor, let down, wand, clean out, leg-up, hasty, erect and 115 more...
-
thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
-
kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
-
wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
-
Stumbled Words
A list of words that I stumbled upon while reading.
penumbra, prolix, propitious, resplendence, sepulchral, Weltschmerz, apparition, brigand, probity, chalice, paroxysm, pallor and 160 more...
-
per-
through or all over; completely; to destruction or
ill effect -
NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for percolate.

roseandivy For me, this is all about the process ideas take to mature. Complete with sound effects. Apr 23, 2010