regurgitate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
regurgitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
regurgitated,
past participle, past
-
regurgitating
present participle
verb (used with object)
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regurgitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
regurgitated,
past participle, past
-
regurgitating
present participle
-
to cause to surge or rush back; vomit.
-
to give back or repeat, especially something not fully understood or assimilated.
to regurgitate the teacher's lectures on the exam.
verb
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to vomit forth (partially digested food)
-
(of some birds and certain other animals) to bring back to the mouth (undigested or partly digested food with which to feed the young)
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(intr) to be cast up or out, esp from the mouth
-
(intr) med (of blood) to flow backwards, in a direction opposite to the normal one, esp through a defective heart valve
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
regurgitatesimple
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regurgitatessimple
-
have regurgitatedperfect
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has regurgitatedperfect
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am regurgitatingprogressive
-
are regurgitatingprogressive
-
is regurgitatingprogressive
-
have been regurgitatingperfect progressive
-
has been regurgitatingperfect progressive
Past
-
regurgitatedsimple
-
had regurgitatedperfect
-
was regurgitatingprogressive
-
were regurgitatingprogressive
-
had been regurgitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of regurgitate
1645–55; < Medieval Latin regurgitātus (past participle of regurgitāre ), equivalent to re- re- + gurgit-, stem of gurges whirlpool, flood, stream + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To regurgitate is to bring already swallowed food back up through one's throat and out the mouth. Not so nice in humans, but much more understandable (if still gross) in birds — who feed their baby chicks by regurgitating. Finished cramming for your exam? Ready to do a data dump? Then you're about to regurgitate all you've learned — repeat information verbatim without any real understanding or analysis of it. Don't worry, everyone does it, from high school and college students, to grown-ups in corporate boardrooms.
Vocabulary lists containing regurgitate
Freak the Mighty
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The Stars Beneath Our Feet
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The Hot Zone
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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:
AI matchmaking users have complained about limited prospect pools, generic descriptions of potential matches, and chatbots that simply regurgitate their preferences.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Too much of modern life is dominated by machines that can only regurgitate what has come before, says Bienvenu.
From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026
While they hear everything, there is little they can do other than regurgitate the info online.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025
“Social platforms realized that they could endlessly mine the content they already had and regurgitate it back to consumers,” Lorenz said.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2024
Mother looks like she is going to regurgitate last night’s dinner.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Gibson often regurgitates messages from personal finance and investing books that he reads, or from YouTube videos he watches about finance for beginners.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Programming that simply regurgitates what people already see, hear, and believe in their own lives is not, by any definition, “news” or even new.
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2026
The 1995 Korean War Veterans Memorial is centered on figurative sculptures; the 2004 World War II Memorial regurgitates classical architectural banalities — arches, pylons and wreaths — on a scale worthy of Albert Speer.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2022
The ruminant regurgitates cud from the rumen, and the food is passed into the abomasum for water removal and then into the small and large intestines for nutrient and further water absorption.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
He coughs a deep cough and regurgitates something into the bag.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Smaller accounts regurgitated Owens’ claims in their own videos, with no apparent value added.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2026
Watching AI-generated content, which is regurgitated again and again, fed to a zombie audience that no longer cares.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
If “Christy” is Sweeney’s message through art, it may as well be the cinematic equivalent of “Dogs Playing Poker,” an image so often remixed and regurgitated that it’s devoid of any compelling meaning.
From Salon ● Nov. 8, 2025
"We voted for the second time last week and turned down their regurgitated offer, but the minister came back this week with a few more empty promises," one said.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2025
It makes no sound until the moment of its death, at which point it lets out a long scream made up of every sound it has ever heard, regurgitated backwards.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
Does being faithful mean regurgitating an author’s words?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
McVay refrained from regurgitating any such nonsense when speaking at the team hotel on the eve of training camp.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2023
"I look around, I see lots of Titanic experts . . . but from my perspective, most are regurgitating things that are already out there."
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2023
OpenAI’s generative language tool ChatGPT has proven to be effective at regurgitating hackneyed cultural motifs back at its users, which makes it perfect for the platitudinal terrain of BuzzFeed quizzes.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2023
I caught Tamika up to speed, regurgitating my phone conversation with Dr. Spires about the possible food allergy.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja 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.
