migrate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to go from one country, region, or place to another.
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to pass periodically from one region or climate to another, as certain birds, fishes, and animals.
The birds migrate southward in the winter.
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to shift, as from one system, mode of operation, or enterprise to another.
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Physiology. (of a cell, tissue, etc.) to move from one region of the body to another, as in embryonic development.
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Chemistry.
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(of ions) to move toward an electrode during electrolysis.
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(of atoms within a molecule) to change position.
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(at British universities) to change or transfer from one college to another.
verb
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to go from one region, country, or place of abode to settle in another, esp in a foreign country
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(of birds, fishes, etc) to journey between different areas at specific times of the year
Related Words
Migrate, emigrate, immigrate are used of changing one's abode from one country or part of a country to another. To migrate is to make such a move either once or repeatedly: to migrate from Ireland to the United States. To emigrate is to leave a country, usually one's own (and take up residence in another): Each year many people emigrate from Europe. To immigrate is to enter and settle in a country not one's own: There are many inducements to immigrate to South America. Migrate is applied both to people or to animals that move from one region to another, especially periodically; the other terms are generally applied to movements of people.
Other Word Forms
- intermigrate verb (used without object)
- migrator noun
- nonmigrating adjective
- remigrate verb (used without object)
- unmigrating adjective
Etymology
Origin of migrate
First recorded in 1690–1700; from Latin migrātus (past participle of migrāre “to move from place to place, change position or abode”), equivalent to migrā- verb stem + -tus past participle suffix
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.
In the mid-’40s, he migrated to Chicago and somehow got a job with the great orchestra leader and arranger Fletcher Henderson, but his musical ideas and influence were resisted by Henderson’s band members.
Concepts developed to help patients tolerate distress have migrated into policy, where they serve the opposite function.
The EU has competing states, too, but they are not bound together by a uniform set of laws, and, because of national identities, households and businesses do not migrate as easily.
From MarketWatch
The cluster of quakes gradually migrated more than 10 kilometers northeast of Santorini.
From Science Daily
There’s precedent for skaters migrating from the ice to the road.
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.
