flagellate
Americanverb (used with object)
adjective
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Biology. Also flagellated having flagella.
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Botany. producing filiform runners or runnerlike branches, as the strawberry.
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pertaining to or caused by flagellates.
noun
verb
adjective
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possessing one or more flagella
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resembling a flagellum; whiplike
noun
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Any of various protozoans of the subphylum Mastigophora that move by means of one or more flagella. Some flagellates can make food by photosynthesis (such as euglenas and volvox), and are often classified as green algae by botanists. Others are symbiotic or parasitic (such as trypanosomes). Flagellates are related to amoebas.
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Also called mastigophoran
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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multiflagellatedadjective
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flagellatornoun
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flagellationnoun
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preflagellateadjective
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preflagellatedadjective
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multiflagellateadjective
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nonflagellatedadjective
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nonflagellateadjective
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flagellatoryadjective
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have flagellatedperfect
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has flagellatedperfect 3rd person singular
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have been flagellatingperfect progressive
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flagellatingparticiple
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flagellatessingular 3rd person
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am flagellatingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been flagellatingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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are flagellatingprogressive
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is flagellatingprogressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had flagellatedperfect
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had been flagellatingperfect progressive
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flagellatedparticiple
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was flagellatingprogressive singular
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flagellatedsimple
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were flagellatingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of flagellate
1615–25; < Latin flagellātus, past participle of flagellāre to whip. See flagellum, -ate 1
Explanation
To flagellate is to hit or beat, especially with a whip. These days, in most parts of the world, people rarely flagellate others as a punishment. While the verb flagellate can be used for any variety of whipping or beating, it often means a kind of religious self-punishment. This practice, while not common today, exists among some groups of Catholics who hit their own shoulders and backs as part of religious discipline. Flagellate comes from the noun flagellum, "a slender, thread-like structure," or in Latin, "whip."
Vocabulary lists containing flagellate
Persepolis
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Friday Night Lights
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The Black Kids
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This type, however, which is known as the Flagellate, may be derived from the next, which we will take as the primitive and fundamental animal type.
From The Story of Evolution by McCabe, Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
