estivation

noun

es·​ti·​va·​tion ˌe-stə-ˈvā-shən 

variants or aestivation

1

zoology : the state or condition of torpidity or dormancy induced by the heat and dryness of summer : the state of one that is estivating

Some animals, including various species of snakes, land snails, and lizards, enter a state of dormancy, or estivation, in the summer when water is scarce.

—Carrol B. Fleming

… they [land snails of the genus Cerion] spend most of this time in the warm weather equivalent of hibernation (called estivation), hanging upside down from vegetation or affixed to rocks.

—Stephen Jay Gould

2

usually aestivation botany : the arrangement or position of the petals or sepals in a flower bud

In practice, aestivation is best observed by making hand sections of mature flower buds …

—Michael G. Simpson

… flowers on the same plants or the same stem may exhibit either clockwise or counterclockwise spiral estivations …

—Carlos Herrera

compare vernation

Examples of estivation in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

When temperatures reach 113 degrees (45 degrees Celsius) during the dry season, crocodiles will attempt to aestivation — or reduce their body temperature by burying themselves in mud for up to a month without eating, by living off its fat reserves. —Camille Fine, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2023

Reptiles, amphibians and lungfish also use estivation to ward off long periods of hot weather. —Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 30 Aug. 2022

But other creatures use a kind of long-term sleep, called estivation, to get them through extreme heat instead. —Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 30 Aug. 2022

No, not death, Rosalie clarified, but stillness, like hibernation or estivation, waiting for . . . —Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2023

Warm-weather hibernation, or estivation, is also used by lizards, snails, and turtles. —Gregory Mone, Discover Magazine, 19 June 2013

Word History

First Known Use

1783, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

estivation

noun

es·​ti·​va·​tion

variants or aestivation

ˌes-tə-ˈvā-shən 

: the state of one that estivates