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

And with smaller indie venues unable to compete for big-name talent, they’re less likely to take chances on sparsely attended scenes that need time to gestate.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2023

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

“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

Is he not justified in the conclusion that the nerves do gestate and send forth all substances that are applied by nature in the construction of man?

From Philosophy of Osteopathy by Still, A. T. (Andrew Taylor)

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

All may have spirits, from the lowest to the highest, holding the same relations to the body in which it is gestated as the spirit of man holds to his physical form.

From Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic Science by Tuttle, Hudson

"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

Long before the emergence of a winged protagonist who transports powerful orbs across the mysterious landscape of Cocoon, the adventure video game was an abstract computer science exercise gestating in its creator’s head.

From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2023

On Saturday, Mysterio is scheduled to take on his son Dominik in a long gestating feud that reads as an homage to Guerrero’s “When Worlds Collide” story line.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2023

With Emerson alone we are rich in sunlight, but poor in rain and dew,—poor, too, in soil, and in the moist, gestating earth principle.

From Birds and Poets : with Other Papers by Burroughs, John