Hibernate
['haɪbəneɪt] or ['haɪbɚnet]
Definition
(verb.) sleep during winter; 'Bears must eat a lot of food before they hibernate in their caves'.
(verb.) be in an inactive or dormant state.
Typed by Lisa--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) To winter; to pass the season of winter in close quarters, in a torpid or lethargic state, as certain mammals, reptiles, and insects.
Checked by Bernadette
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Winter, pass the winter.
Editor: Terence
Definition
v.i. to winter: to pass the winter in torpor: to live in seclusion.—ns. Hiber′nacle a winter covering; Hibernac′ulum any part of a plant protecting an embryonic organ during the winter.—adj. Hiber′nal belonging to winter: wintry.—n. Hibernā′tion the state of torpor in which many animals pass the winter.
Typed by Erica
Unserious Contents or Definition
v.i. To pass the winter season in domestic seclusion. There have been many singular popular notions about the hibernation of various animals. Many believe that the bear hibernates during the whole winter and subsists by mechanically sucking its paws. It is admitted that it comes out of its retirement in the spring so lean that it had to try twice before it can cast a shadow. Three or four centuries ago in England no fact was better attested than that swallows passed the winter months in the mud at the bottom of their brooks clinging together in globular masses. They have apparently been compelled to give up the custom on account of the foulness of the brooks. Sotus Ecobius discovered in Central Asia a whole nation of people who hibernate. By some investigators the fasting of Lent is supposed to have been originally a modified form of hibernation to which the Church gave a religious significance; but this view was strenuously opposed by that eminent authority Bishop Kip who did not wish any honors denied to the memory of the Founder of his family.
Checked by Fern
Examples
- Stanton said that the usual live-stock accompaniment of operators' boarding-houses was absent; he thought the intense cold had caused them to hibernate. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- What Happens when Animals Hibernate? Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Editor: Randolph