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
-
have gyratedperfect
-
has gyratedperfect
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am gyratingprogressive
-
are gyratingprogressive
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is gyratingprogressive
-
have been gyratingperfect progressive
-
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:
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
They mostly gyrate based on how they’re perceived on social media and the skill of company insiders at harnessing that energy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 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
On a recent Wednesday, a Chinese fire dancer gyrated to the drone of a didgeridoo, an Indigenous Australian instrument, in the courtyard of an Israeli musician’s home.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
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
They tumbled, balanced and gyrated, cavorting comically across the laden tabletops without upsetting as much as a single sultana.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Stocks are gyrating as though there’s a full-blown crisis, while the S&P 500 is just 2% from its high.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 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
Based on some of the mysterious events we witnessed that episode, like the gyrating spirit that leads Rose to a grisly tableaux of frozen bodies, a word like “weird” seems woefully insufficient.
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2024
There was no gyrating sack on his shoulder, so he hadn’t recaptured Witching Hour like he’d said he would.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
