gestate

American  

[jes-teyt] / ˈdʒɛs teɪt /

verb (used with object)

gestated, gestating

1. to carry in the womb during the period from conception to delivery.

2. to think of and develop (an idea, opinion, plan, etc.) slowly in the mind.

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verb (used without object)

gestated, gestating

1. to experience the process of gestating offspring.

2. to develop slowly.

gestate British  

/ ˈdʒɛsteɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to carry (developing young) in the uterus during pregnancy

2. (tr) to develop (a plan or idea) in the mind

3. (intr) to be in the process of gestating

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Etymology

Origin of gestate

First recorded in 1865–70; from Latin gestātus, past participle of gestāre “to carry about, carry in the womb,” frequentative of gerere “to bear, perform”

Explanation

It's unclear just how long it took for the idea for the website to gestate. Did he think of it right away, or did it take months for him to come up with the idea? When something is gestating, it's literally in the womb, developing into whatever it will be when it's finally born. Other things besides living organisms can gestate, however. Frequently, gestate is used to refer to ideas and plans while they're in the development phase. The idea for a new way to market music to a generation of kids who expect it to be free was gestating for years before iTunes was launched. A gestation period is the time it takes for something to be born. Humans, for example, gestate for nine months.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gestate gestated gestating

It's surrogacy, or the practice in which someone with a uterus agrees to gestate and deliver a baby on the behalf of other parents.

From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2024

Sheep typically gestate for about 5 months; the lambs that the researchers used were the equivalent of a human fetus at 23 weeks of gestation.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2023

SZA also decided that, to fully gestate “SOS,” she needed to shed her dependencies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2023

“Even if we got it genetically perfect, we are still going to have to gestate it in a different species, so why would you think it would be exactly the same?”

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 9, 2022

Woman is not only the creative agency for building bodies, but the perfecting agency to build character, and to gestate and bring to birth the higher nature in humanity.

From The Arena Volume 4, No. 24, November, 1891 by B. O. (Benjamin Orange) Flower

Latifi, who gestated the book alongside her firstborn, argues that becoming an influencer is the modern pitch to mothers that they can raise a family without sacrificing their careers.

From Salon ● May 10, 2026

Brown began researching robots and robotics, and slowly the story gestated in his mind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2025

Active labor: delivery of a fully gestated person who’s coming out of the womb, viable, at the end of pregnancy.

From Slate ● Apr. 22, 2024

While Johnson had been invited to record closer-to-home before, it took his comfort and confidence in his collaborators to get him to finally cut these songs that gestated over neighborhood walks and late-night guitar-tinkering sessions.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023

In her womb they were gestated and formed.

From Time and Change by John Burroughs

"The kicker is within two or three days of giving birth, they fall pregnant again so while they're rearing the first litter, they're gestating the second," Henry says.

From BBC ● May 30, 2026

These tools also allow women tasked with gestating children, caring for infants, and doing housework to not be completely consumed by it.

From Slate ● Jan. 20, 2026

But the movie’s thoughts about pain and devotion and locker-room manipulation are still gestating.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025

But I don’t believe Seattle should proceed with a proposal that’s gestating to create news vouchers, modeled on the city’s $30 million democracy voucher program.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 10, 2023

Never tempt me to write, for while the thing is gestating I am a brute, moody, irritable, unhappy.

From The Gorgeous Isle A Romance; Scene: Nevis, B.W.I. 1842 by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton