Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

fibrillate

American  
[fahy-bruh-leyt, fib-ruh-] / ˈfaɪ brəˌleɪt, ˈfɪb rə- /

verb (used with object)

fibrillated, fibrillating
  1. to cause to undergo fibrillation.


verb (used without object)

fibrillated, fibrillating
  1. to undergo fibrillation.

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of fibrillate

First recorded in 1830–40; fibrill(a) + -ate 1

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:

“It’s for when you fibrillate too much,” I reply.

From Salon May 21, 2016

On the operating table, Able's heart began to fibrillate.

From Time Magazine Archive

But hearts across the nation and around the world began to fibrillate at the thought that Quayle might suddenly be thrust into the most powerful position on earth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Bush again came face to face with the prospect of dying five weeks ago after his heart began to fibrillate as he was jogging at Camp David.

From Time Magazine Archive

But if something mental or physical excites the accelerator nerve or stimulates the adrenals to pour an excess of adrenalin into the blood, the ventricles begin to fibrillate.

From Time Magazine Archive

Instead, Velev and his collaborators took a different approach, reinforcing the agarose films with fibrillated colloidal scale material -- called soft dendritic colloids -- made from chitosan.

From Science Daily Dec. 11, 2023

Selling almost 10 million copies and knocking Michael Jackson's Dangerous from the top of the charts, the album fibrillated the psyche of a generation.

From Time Magazine Archive

When moving slowly they look much like nicely-pointed paint brushes, but when the animal is compressed they quickly become fibrillated, and then look like extremely old and worn brushes.

From Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 by Gary N. (Gary Nathan) Calkins

The epithelioid cells eventually become fusiform or stellate, and their projections, as well as those of many of the giant-cells, become fibrillated.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

The presence of this substance is readily detected by the addition of acetic acid to mucus, the effect being a fibrillated appearance of the latter, the fibres presenting a more or less parallel distribution.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

This drug can create a deep state of anesthesia and amnesia sufficient to block the pain of a surgeon’s knife or 400 joules of electricity delivered to reset a fibrillating heart.

From Slate Aug. 20, 2024

It was not beating, but it was fibrillating.

From Washington Post Sep. 30, 2019

The coroner said his heart, fibrillating, stopped pumping blood to his organs, starving his brain of oxygen.

From Reuters Sep. 21, 2017

Woe Is Syphilis, and Other Afflictions of the Literati The old Irishman was a swollen, wheezing mess, wildly out of control, kidneys failing, heart fibrillating.

From New York Times Nov. 26, 2012

Kyril Montana was panting; his heart beat rapidly, almost fibrillating, and he felt queasy, slightly nauseous.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Just like flashcards, but way more fun

Don't take our word for it. Leave the boring studying behind and join VocabTrainer today. You'll learn even faster and never look back.

Take me to Vocabulary.com