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
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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:
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
Oil prices can gyrate sharply, so Fed officials prefer to look at a separate measure of inflation known as the core rate that strips out energy.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 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
The remarks led U.S. stocks to gyrate between modest gains and losses before jumping higher towards the end of the session.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 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
Even humanism, which by its name would seem to be brother to its present-day parody, perceived an ideal far above the vicious circle in which humanitarianism gyrates.
From The Jessica Letters: An Editor's Romance by Paul Elmer More
Korean stocks gyrated, triggering circuit-breakers meant to stop losses on the way down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 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
Geno Auriemma gyrated and gestured in anguish on the sideline as the No. 2-seeded Huskies launched a series of passes that missed the mark and sailed out of bounds.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 25, 2023
Behind the big front windows of the dance halls, people gyrated to pounding music as though they were struck with some serious disease.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
In the fog of war, precise data is scarce and the battlefield is shifting too fast for investors, leading to gyrating oil prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
“Dance music is Black music,” Fox told the crowd in between his gyrating and turning up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 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
Wouldn’t you feel better if all of your money was in cash and not in gyrating stocks?
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2023
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.
