nauseate

American  

[naw-zee-eyt, -zhee-, -see-, -shee-] / ˈnɔ ziˌeɪt, -ʒi-, -si-, -ʃi- /

verb (used with object)

nauseated, nauseating

1. to affect with nausea; sicken.

   The overwhelming smell of boiled cabbage nauseated them.

2. to cause to feel extreme disgust.

   His vicious behavior toward the dogs nauseates me.

   Synonyms:

   revolt

   Antonyms:

   delight, attract

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verb (used without object)

nauseated, nauseating

1. to become affected with nausea.

nauseate British  

/ ˈnɔːzɪˌeɪt, -sɪ- /

verb

1. (tr) to arouse feelings of disgust or revulsion in

2. to feel or cause to feel sick

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Usage

What does nauseate mean? To nauseate means to cause nausea—a feeling of sickness in your stomach, as if you might vomit.The word nauseated is commonly used as an adjective to mean feeling nausea. The adjective nauseous is more commonly used to mean the same thing.The adjective nauseating means causing nausea (nauseous can also be used to mean this, but that’s much less common).The word nausea can also be used in a figurative way meaning a feeling of disgust, revulsion, or repulsion, and nauseate can mean to make someone feel this, meaning the same thing as the verb disgust, as in Their cruelty nauseates me. Much less commonly, nauseate can mean to become nauseous, as in I nauseate whenever I ride a rollercoaster. Example: I’m not sure what nauseated me more—the disgusting food or the server’s disgusting comments.

Other Word Forms

• nauseating adjective
• nauseatingly adverb
• nauseation noun

Etymology

Origin of nauseate

First recorded in 1630–40, nauseate is from the Latin word nauseātus (past participle of nauseāre “to be seasick”). See nausea, -ate ¹

Example Sentences

It’s not enough to save the aesthetic of the entire film, though, which is somehow both gray and nauseating.

From Los Angeles Times

And we started running to our car, because the smell was just nauseating.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Remember what you want to avoid: the nauseating feeling of having wasted a block of time,” she writes.

From The Wall Street Journal

Around 2024, their mass torts business began booming, starting with the landfill lawsuits, in which the firm accused the operators of recklessly allowing nauseating odors.

From Los Angeles Times

And while he boasts of his strong aesthetic sense—trained as a physicist, he left the field in the 1970s “nauseated” by the “hideously ugly” ideas then coming into vogue—his eye is suspect.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• horrify
• sicken