hibernate
Americanverb (used without object)
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hibernates,
present (3rd person singular)
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hibernated,
past participle, past
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hibernating
present participle
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Zoology. to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormant condition, as bears and certain other animals.
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to withdraw or be in seclusion; retire.
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to winter in a place with a milder climate.
Each winter finds us hibernating in Florida.
verb
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(of some mammals, reptiles, and amphibians) to pass the winter in a dormant condition with metabolism greatly slowed down Compare aestivate
-
to cease from activity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hibernatesimple
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hibernatessimple
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have hibernatedperfect
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has hibernatedperfect
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am hibernatingprogressive
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are hibernatingprogressive
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is hibernatingprogressive
-
have been hibernatingperfect progressive
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has been hibernatingperfect progressive
Past
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hibernatedsimple
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had hibernatedperfect
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was hibernatingprogressive
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were hibernatingprogressive
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had been hibernatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hibernate
First recorded in 1795–1805, hibernate is from the Latin word hībernātus (past participle of hībernāre to spend the winter). See hibernal, -ate 1
Explanation
To hibernate means to take a season-long snooze. When a bear crawls into a cave with a belly full of food ready to sleep through the cold winter, that bear is going to hibernate until spring. Animals that sleep through the winter, like bears, squirrels, rodents and even some rattlesnakes, are said to hibernate through the winter. This word can also be used to describe any kind of inactive or dormant state, especially for the purpose of getting rest. If you’ve had a tough week and you’re planning to shut down and hole up in your house for the weekend, you could say you’re going to hibernate this weekend.
Vocabulary lists containing hibernate
Wintry Words
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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.
See Examples For:
In “Rare Bird” a woman in 18th-century England finds pleasure in the company of a new friend, who helps her test a claim from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus that swallows hibernate underwater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Though fence lizards don’t hibernate, they become sluggish in winter, which is why these days, warmed by the sun and driven by the urge to mate, they’re once more appearing all over.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2025
The mechanisms animals use to hibernate or slow their metabolism during unfavorable seasonal conditions are similar to those used by resurrecting creatures, who are just rather more extreme about it.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2025
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that, after infecting a person, tend to hibernate in the body.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025
I slept through the winter, the way plants hibernate.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
Its full life cycle remains a mystery, but it probably includes a cyst stage that hibernates on the lake bottom until it’s triggered to divide and release new cells.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023
Kay doesn't think Abersoch hibernates in the autumn and winter, but admits the school's closure would be "another stab".
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2021
A white dwarf star gathers hydrogen from its neighbor for 100,000 years, erupts, hibernates, goes through a dwarf-nova stage — and does it all over again, possibly for a billion years.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2017
He’s like an actor who puts everything into a night onstage and then hibernates for the next month.
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2016
Come summer he gets dozy and hibernates through to autumn, and I can speak a bit better.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
The glove maker’s plant utilization rates are above 96%, excluding hibernated plants, he notes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
"Blue-tongued skinks hibernated under the garage and at night blue-banded and teddy-bear bees slept in the hedges under the front window," Dr Holden said.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 8, 2023
Not that the festival has exactly hibernated in the meantime: In 2021 and 2022, digital screenings and panel discussions helped sustain this annual event and its movie-hungry audiences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2023
Aristotle thought that some birds such as swallows hibernated in the colder months and that others transformed into different species—redstarts turned into robins for the winter, he proposed.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 15, 2022
So I took to the cellar; I hibernated.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Backpack, the winning bear, after months of eating to gain weight ahead of hibernating in winter.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The Sleeping Giant of a football program has been hibernating for so long that no one can be certain it’s still hibernating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
These field exposure estimates informed subsequent studies on the impact of such exposure on hibernating bumble bee queens and the hoary squash bee, a solitary ground-nesting species.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024
"Minimizing disturbance to bats when they are hibernating or raising young is critical," Loeb said.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2024
As the work intensified, something that had been hibernating in her mind awakened, and once roused it would not go away.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
