levitate
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
verb
-
to rise or cause to rise and float in the air, without visible agency, attributed, esp formerly, to supernatural causes
-
(tr) med to support (a patient) on a cushion of air in the treatment of severe burns
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of levitate
Explanation
To levitate is to float in the air, defying gravity. It also means to cause something to do that. With a magnetic force — or a magic wand — you might be able to make your teacher levitate above your classroom. Levitate comes from the Latin levis, meaning “light.” Something that is light can levitate easily. Magicians levitate things like pigs and snowmobiles and women as part of their shows. In architecture, certain structures can be raised or suspended so as to appear to levitate.
Vocabulary lists containing levitate
The Things They Carried
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The Wednesday Wars
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
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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.
His narrator, Richard, is the least shiny of a golden foursome whose youth, beauty and careless wealth allow them to levitate somewhere over Sydney Harbor, happily encased in the champagne bubble of their bottomless self-regard.
From New York Times • Feb. 10, 2024
Planetary scientists think that electrostatic forces generated from this interaction levitate dust or ice above the ring to form the spokes, though after several decades no theory perfectly predicts the spokes.
From Science Daily • Dec. 21, 2023
It’s the spell you cast to levitate something.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 21, 2023
The Wall Street journal quoted him as predicting that “we could magnetically levitate trains above superconducting rails, change the way electricity is stored and transferred, and revolutionize medical imaging.”
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2023
Then the general raises her hand, and my parents and Uncle Ty levitate off their chairs.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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.
