Word of the Day

: April 18, 2020

regurgitate

verb ree-GUR-juh-tayt

What It Means

1 : to become thrown or poured back

2 : to throw or pour back or out from or as if from a cavity

regurgitate in Context

"When [Kawhi] Leonard says, 'The youth is the future, and good education, they need it,' like he did Wednesday night in Phoenix, he's not just regurgitating a cliché. It's a sincere belief. After signing with the Clippers, the team's community relations team brought a number of service ideas to Leonard, with the team's superstar immediately zeroing in on efforts in public schools, in Moreno Valley, where he grew up, and in Los Angeles." — Dan Woike, The Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2020

"Not only do wolves eat berries—something researchers were already aware of—but adult wolves also regurgitate them to feed their pups." — Pam Louwagie, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 22 Feb. 2020

Did You Know?

Something regurgitated has typically been taken in, at least partially digested, and then spit back out—either literally or figuratively. The word often appears in biological contexts (e.g., in describing how some birds feed their chicks by regurgitating incompletely digested food) or in references to ideas or information that has been acquired and restated. A student, for example, might be expected to learn information from a textbook or a teacher and then regurgitate it for a test. Regurgitate, which entered the English vocabulary in the latter half of the 16th century, is of Latin origin and traces back to the Latin word for "whirlpool," which is gurges.