gyrate
Americanverb (used without object)
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gyrates,
present (3rd person singular)
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gyrated,
past participle, past
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gyrating
present participle
adjective
verb
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gyratesimple
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gyratessimple
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have gyratedperfect
-
has gyratedperfect
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am gyratingprogressive
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are gyratingprogressive
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is gyratingprogressive
-
have been gyratingperfect progressive
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has been gyratingperfect progressive
Past
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gyratedsimple
-
had gyratedperfect
-
was gyratingprogressive
-
were gyratingprogressive
-
had been gyratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gyrate
First recorded in 1820–30, gyrate is from the Latin word gȳrātus (past participle of gȳrāre to turn around). See gyr-, -ate 1
Explanation
When things turn or spin on an axis, like the seats on a whirling amusement park ride, they gyrate. When you spin a top, you watch it gyrate. An axis is a fixed, imaginary point or line that something rotates around — the Earth, famously, turns on an axis. If an object spins rapidly around this point, it gyrates. Many kinds of engines gyrate, and so do pinwheels, windmills, and gyroscopes. Even Elvis's hips were said to gyrate! The root of the verb gyrate is the Latin word for "circle," gyrus, which in turn comes from the Greek gyros, "circle or ring."
Vocabulary lists containing gyrate
Warriors Don't Cry
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You Bring the Distant Near
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Prom Time
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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:
These two categories often gyrate up and down and exaggerate changes in GDP.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
From 1979 to 1982 when the Fed was targeting the money supply, interest rates would gyrate with each weekly release of the money supply data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Those bearing the structures often gyrate to the beat provided by percussionists alongside religious chants and devotional folk songs.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
Gigot’s poems gyrate from intimate introspection to cold science, seemingly bubbling up from swampy pastures framed by cottonwoods and poplars.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
He saw the two dial indicators gyrate frantically.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Key details: The headline increase in wholesale prices was exaggerated by a large rise in a category known as retail trade margins that often gyrates sharply from month to month.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
Delia is possessed by a ghoul who makes her sing the Caribbean number in the voice of Belafonte while she gyrates with her mortified dinner guests.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Then, after he talks himself out, he gyrates to the music, waving his veiny arms in the air.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2025
In pink trousers and a matching puffer jacket, Grammy-nominated Kenyan musician Bien-Aime Alusa gyrates on stage as he sings to a bank of swaying fans, many capturing the moment on their mobile phones.
From Reuters ● Jan. 5, 2023
Charles is no Regan, hardly even an Albany, no weakling either, but a man of sensitive conscience, who shifts and gyrates responsively to the complex play of motive which Browning brings to bear upon him.
From Robert Browning by C. H. (Charles Harold) Herford
Stocks have gyrated on any ray of hope coming out of the Middle East, and that makes sense.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
The purchasing power of gold has gyrated from one year to the next.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
He added: "As an armchair fan of the show I have watched in awe as people have twirled and gyrated across the screen. And now it's my turn... gulp!"
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
Markets have gyrated this week on concerns over the toll on banks from the fastest set of interest rate hikes in decades.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2023
They tumbled, balanced and gyrated, cavorting comically across the laden tabletops without upsetting as much as a single sultana.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
The selling turned wild on Thursday and continued Friday, with short-term French bond yields gyrating as much as 0.40 percentage points at one point over the two days, some of the biggest moves in years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
“Dance music is Black music,” Fox told the crowd in between his gyrating and turning up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
The team dressed in Santa hats and reindeer antlers, throwing the slowly gyrating microphone to each other to speak while candy canes floated around their heads.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2025
At its height, and after gyrating through a verse or two of “Confessions,” Usher brought forth an HBCU-style marching band and drumline in formation, spelling out his name.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2024
At the ballet, in operas, on the concert stage, lilting, driving, whirling, tiptoeing, leaping, gliding, jumping, gyrating and twirling, Russian music can’t get enough of it.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
