gestate

American  

[jes-tayt] / 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”

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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

If “The Moment” had more time to gestate, it would likely be a much sharper and shocking satire.

From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2026

As female cicadas lay eggs that gestate for the next 13 or 17 years, it can cause short-term damage to some trees and shrubs.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2024

New work takes time to gestate, and already this play has left a haunting mark.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2024

Chief among these hallmarks of placental mammals is the capacity to birth well-developed young, which gestate for a prolonged period inside the mother before being born in an advanced state.

From Scientific American ● May 17, 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 duplicitous celebrities, so the rumor mill grinds, have hired mysterious surrogates to do their gestating work.

From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025

“Burt,” his second feature, was shot over seven days for $7,000, though the project had been gestating for seven years by the time cameras rolled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 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

What must be the effect, long continued, of this class of jugglers working upon the sympathies and the imagination of a nation of gestating women?

From Birds and Poets : with Other Papers by John Burroughs

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