propagate
- to cause (an organism) to multiply by any process of natural reproduction from the parent stock.
- to reproduce (itself, its kind, etc.), as an organism does.
- to transmit (hereditary features or elements) to, or through, offspring.
- to spread (a report, doctrine, practice, etc.) from person to person; disseminate.
- to cause to increase in number or amount.
- to create (an effect) at a distance, as by electromagnetic waves, compression waves, etc., traveling through space or a physical medium; transmit: to propagate sound.
- to multiply by any process of natural reproduction, as organisms; breed.
- to increase in extent, as a structural flaw: The crack will propagate only to this joint.
- (of electromagnetic waves, compression waves, etc.) to travel through space or a physical medium.
Origin of propagate
Examples from the Web for self-propagating
Historical Examples of self-propagating
Evil is a mysterious, self-propagating principle, like leaven.
The Parables of Our LordWilliam Arnot
Our Baptist mission churches are fast becoming models of self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating bodies.
A Tour of the MissionsAugustus Hopkins Strong
It is self-propagating, from the fact of its lower branches rooting where they touch the soil.
Organisms possess in themselves formative power of a self-propagating kind, which they communicate to their materials.
I was obliged, in fact, to brace myself, to reason it out again that right was self-propagating and wrong necessarily sterile.
The High HeartBasil King
propagate
- biology to reproduce or cause to reproduce; breed
- (tr) horticulture to produce (plants) by layering, grafting, cuttings, etc
- (tr) to promulgate; disseminate
- physics to move through, cause to move through, or transmit, esp in the form of a waveto propagate sound
- (tr) to transmit (characteristics) from one generation to the next
Word Origin for propagate
Word Origin and History for self-propagating
propagate
1560s, "to cause to multiply," from Latin propagatus, past participle of propagare "to set forward, extend, procreate" (see propagation). Intransitive sense "reproduce one's kind" is from c.1600. Related: Propagated; propagating.
propagate
(prŏp′ə-gāt′)- To cause an organism to multiply or breed.
- To breed offspring.
- To transmit characteristics from one generation to another.
- To cause to move in some direction or through a medium, such as a wave or nerve impulse.