nauseate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
-
(tr) to arouse feelings of disgust or revulsion in
-
to feel or cause to feel sick
Usage
What does nauseate mean? To nauseate means to cause nausea—a feeling of sickness in your stomach, as if you might vomit.The word nauseated is commonly used as an adjective to mean feeling nausea. The adjective nauseous is more commonly used to mean the same thing.The adjective nauseating means causing nausea (nauseous can also be used to mean this, but that’s much less common).The word nausea can also be used in a figurative way meaning a feeling of disgust, revulsion, or repulsion, and nauseate can mean to make someone feel this, meaning the same thing as the verb disgust, as in Their cruelty nauseates me. Much less commonly, nauseate can mean to become nauseous, as in I nauseate whenever I ride a rollercoaster. Example: I’m not sure what nauseated me more—the disgusting food or the server’s disgusting comments.
Other Word Forms
- nauseating adjective
- nauseatingly adverb
- nauseation noun
Etymology
Origin of nauseate
First recorded in 1630–40, nauseate is from the Latin word nauseātus (past participle of nauseāre “to be seasick”). See nausea, -ate 1
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.
But instead of ogling violence to exploit its evil and nauseate the audience, Lynch calls attention to the systems that propagate it.
From Salon • Jan. 25, 2025
Q. Fed up in Philadelphia: I love my in-laws very much, but they have hygiene habits that nauseate me.
From Slate • Jun. 7, 2021
The prerelease build of Obduction I tried in the Oculus Rift didn’t nauseate me, although it suffered from the occasional frame rate drop — one of the issues Cyan is still ironing out.
From The Verge • Sep. 10, 2016
“Blood, skin, bone,” Connie thinks, as she breathes in the scent of rotting animal, a smell that used to nauseate her.
From Washington Post • Apr. 1, 2016
He was afraid that it might nauseate him and he would vomit and lose his strength.
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
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.
