lactate
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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lactates,
present (3rd person singular)
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lactated,
past participle, past
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lactating
present participle
noun
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
lactatesimple
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lactatessimple
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have lactatedperfect
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has lactatedperfect
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am lactatingprogressive
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are lactatingprogressive
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is lactatingprogressive
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have been lactatingperfect progressive
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has been lactatingperfect progressive
Past
-
lactatedsimple
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had lactatedperfect
-
was lactatingprogressive
-
were lactatingprogressive
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had been lactatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lactate1
1885–90; < Latin lactātus, past participle of lactāre to suckle. See lact-, -ate 1
Origin of lactate2
First recorded in 1785–95; lact(ic acid) + -ate 2
Explanation
To lactate is to produce milk for feeding babies. All female mammals who give birth lactate. A mother cow has to lactate in order to feed her calves, and so that she can be milked by a farmer too. Mothers who nurse their babies lactate, whether they're humans, cats, goats, or skunks. Lactation, "the secretion of milk," came first, from the Late Latin lactationem, "a suckling," from the root lac, "milk."
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:
Today, McCormick is busy chasing after athletes to take blood lactate levels in between their efforts, and she will continue to process and analyse them long after the session has ended.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
It’s made by a Swedish company called Nomio, which says it has identified a compound in the vegetable that helps lower blood lactate levels during intense exercise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
The study tracked the heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate levels of professional drummers in rehearsals and during live shows, the outlet said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2025
Precisely when in prehistory mammals began to lactate, no one yet knows.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2024
We call specially the attention of the reader to the process of Poitevin, by which one can experiment with every ferric salts, citrate, lactate, oxalate, tartrate, benzoate, etc., by simply exciting with the corresponding acid.
From Photographic Reproduction Processes by Peter C. Duchochois
For example, the fallow deer — which is about the same size physically as a human — is pregnant for just seven months and lactates for six.
From Time ● Mar. 30, 2011
Both of the regular intravenous solutions administered in medicine, normal saline and lactated Ringer’s solution, are isotonic.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
For example, I recommended that the organizers consult with someone who had actually lactated at a conference, perhaps even a professional lactation consultant, when coordinating appropriate resources.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 30, 2018
Waddingham gained more than 30kg, developed diabetes and lactated.
From Newsweek
“It affects about 10 percent of lactating individuals,” says Sawhne.
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2026
Workers helping integrate deported immigrants in Honduras told researchers from the Women’s Refugee Commission that nursing women who were deported had not received enough food and water to continue lactating.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2025
In both states, there are exemptions for lactating dairy cattle destined for slaughter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2024
The appearance of the virus in mammary glands — in cattle and even in non lactating mice — was also unexpected.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024
A lactating female would sometimes enter a trap even after it had been sprung by a juvenile, presumably her offspring, or a juvenal vole would enter a trap after its mother had been captured.
From A Population Study of the Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster) in Northeastern Kansas by Edwin P. Martin
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.
