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

Fujii said female otters gestate for about six months and then keep their young for another six months before weaning them.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 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

Thus preparing the upper crust of our earth as a "placenta" ready to gestate plant and animal life.

From The Brain by Alexander Blade

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

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

“Malignant” first gestated when Wan and Bisu, who are married, started bouncing around an idea of hers while at home with their dogs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2021

Another strong contender for Art Basel Jr. is the Untitled fair, whose galleries’ offerings tend to be a bit more thoughtfully gestated than much of NADA’s throw-it-all-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks aesthetic.

From New York Times ● Nov. 29, 2019

It is the labored working of the mass, and the working of the mass brings forth and casts up fanatics, reformers, leaders, when it has gestated them and prepared the way for their birth.

From Youth Challenges by Clarence Budington Kelland

"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

A less-heralded entry is another adaptation — Prime Video’s gender-swapped “Dead Ringers,” which could be carried into contention by Rachel Weisz’s dazzling lead performances as twin gynecologists in whom madness is gestating.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 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