vibrate
Americanverb (used without object)
-
vibrates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vibrated,
past participle, past
-
vibrating
present participle
-
to move rhythmically and steadily to and fro, as a pendulum; oscillate.
-
to move to and fro or up and down quickly and repeatedly; quiver; tremble.
-
(of sounds) to produce or have a quivering or vibratory effect; resound.
- Synonyms:
- echo
-
to thrill, as in emotional response.
-
to move between alternatives or extremes; fluctuate; vacillate.
verb (used with object)
-
vibrates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
vibrated,
past participle, past
-
vibrating
present participle
-
to cause to move rhythmically and steadily to and fro, swing, or oscillate.
-
to cause to move to and fro or up and down quickly and repeatedly; cause to quiver or tremble.
-
to give forth or emit by, or as by, vibration.
-
to measure or indicate by vibration or oscillation.
a pendulum vibrating seconds.
verb
-
to move or cause to move back and forth rapidly; shake, quiver, or throb
-
(intr) to oscillate
-
to send out (a sound) by vibration; resonate or cause to resonate
-
(intr) to waver
-
physics to undergo or cause to undergo an oscillatory or periodic process, as of an alternating current; oscillate
-
rare (intr) to respond emotionally; thrill
Synonym Usage
See shake.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
revibrateverb
-
nonvibratingadjective
-
unvibratedadjective
-
unvibratingadjective
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vibratileadjective
-
vibratingadjective
-
vibratoryadjective
-
vibratinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
vibratesimple
-
vibratessimple
-
have vibratedperfect
-
has vibratedperfect
-
am vibratingprogressive
-
are vibratingprogressive
-
is vibratingprogressive
-
have been vibratingperfect progressive
-
has been vibratingperfect progressive
Past
-
vibratedsimple
-
had vibratedperfect
-
was vibratingprogressive
-
were vibratingprogressive
-
had been vibratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of vibrate
First recorded in 1610–20; from Latin vibrātus (past participle of vibrāre “to move to and fro”); see -ate 1
Explanation
When you feel something vibrate, it trembles and shakes. A mild earthquake, for example, might make your chandelier vibrate. A hummingbird's wings vibrate, and so does an electric toothbrush. That extremely rapid back-and-forth movement is what happens when something vibrates. Something can also vibrate in a more musical, resonant way — the sound of an organ might vibrate through a church, for example. The root is the Latin word vibratus, which means "move quickly to and fro or shake."
Vocabulary lists containing vibrate
The Circuit
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Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
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Messenger
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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:
At ordinary temperatures, heat causes atoms to vibrate constantly.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Nothing beats feeling the ground vibrate, seeing the charting of the wheels and hearing the whistle,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Some of Epicore Biosystems' devices vibrate gently when they calculate that it is time for you to take a swig of fluid, to avoid becoming dehydrated.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
These new songs, they vibrate very highly for me and I’m excited about experiencing and expressing that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The crowd chanted along with her, and their voices made the car vibrate.
From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed
Some fans do just that, but the packed stadium vibrates harder with cheers as thousands of phones stay in the air.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
"Some atoms report where the charge is going, while others reveal how the whole molecule vibrates."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 2026
"What happens in any part of this ocean vibrates through all of us," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Even if you never bore witness to that outrageous performance, its elemental alchemy vibrates in the band’s most popular songs, each of them calling to us with purpose.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
When a string vibrates, the main pitch you hear is from the vibration of the whole string back and forth.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Inside the machine, which looked like a large blender with a metal doughnut inside, blue and orange lights vibrated within glass tubes, while feathery electricity danced out the top.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
Each sample was then placed on the actuator and vibrated at ultrasonic frequencies.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2025
A shockwave vibrated around the world as news emerged from Argentina that One Direction star Liam Payne had died, at the age of just 31.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2024
She couldn’t approach them or even wave; she just stared and vibrated, like an awestruck cartoon character with her finger in a light socket.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2024
As she was about to say something, the floor beneath us vibrated.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
This conversation, which took place in a backstage trailer vibrating from the country and hip-hop tunes emanating from nearby stages, has been edited for length and clarity.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026
"We have seen that vibrating objects can exhibit quantum behavior, which is the prerequisite for many of the operations needed by quantum computing and sensing."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
"It then carried on going for a couple of minutes but there was a horrible vibrating sound."
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Conversations stretch for hours without the interruption of a vibrating phone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
The sound of a gong or cymbals will include overtones that aren't harmonics; that's why the gong's sound doesn't seem to have as definite a pitch as the vibrating string does.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
