Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb Zoology To be in a dormant or torpid state during a hot dry period, such as the summer months.
- intransitive verb To spend the summer, especially at a different place from one's usual residence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pass the summer, as in a given place or in a given manner.
- In zoology, to pass into or remain in the summer sleep, as some mollusks; be dormant in summer.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To go into
stasis ortorpor in thesummer months.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb sleep during summer
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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They hibernate — they estivate and they hibernate — until the following January, when you will have forgotten what a pain it was to follow the show week after unrewarding week, and you'll be able to feel excited by the return of the boinging theme music, and the old panel of judges, who will file in wearily and act pained that they have to sit through it all again.
I think I'm going to have to stop watching "American Idol." Ann Althouse 2008
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I'll bet snails can estivate for a really long time, especially desert forms that only rarely encounter damp conditions.
Why I am sceptical of Brenda's story AYDIN 2007
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A few freshwater mussels are known to estivate for a few years-Wendel Haag had a Uniomerus on his desk from when he found it until he finished his dissertation.
Why I am sceptical of Brenda's story AYDIN 2007
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I am going to put a layer of leaf mold and ice cubes in the basement and estivate.
Summertime ... Steve Perry 2007
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At first it looked like a vast blue fort or Valhalla; but when they began to tuck the coarse meadow hay into the crevices, and this became covered with rime and icicles, it looked like a venerable moss-grown and hoary ruin, built of azure-tinted marble, the abode of Winter, that old man we see in the almanac — his shanty, as if he had a design to estivate with us.
Walden 2004
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Other animals, such as lungfish and tortoises, burrow into the mud and estivate to survive.
Mission Of Honor Clancy, Tom 2002
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At first it looked like a vast blue fort or Valhalla; but when they began to tuck the coarse meadow hay into the crevices, and this became covered with rime and icicles, it looked like a venerable moss-grown and hoary ruin, built of azure-tinted marble, the abode of Winter, that old man we see in the almanac, -- his shanty, as if he had a design to estivate with us.
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At first it looked like a vast blue fort or Valhalla; but when they began to tuck the coarse meadow hay into the crevices, and this became covered with rime and icicles, it looked like a venerable moss-grown and hoary ruin, built of azure-tinted marble, the abode of Winter, that old man we see in the almanac — his shanty, as if he had a design to estivate with us.
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I did not see any live Albinaria, which estivate on rock surfaces and are, therefore, easy to spot.
SNAIL'S TALES 2010
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They do not know whether to run, estivate, or start digging. "
Dirge Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2000
knitandpurl commented on the word estivate
"I suppose I passed my youth in the amateur fashion common to certain youths born to a gracious life, to the luxury, calm, and voluptuousness of my generation—never mind which precisely—of European bourgeoisie who estivated on the North Sea or Atlantic coast rather than the Mediterranean or by placid Alpine lakes rather than along the lagoons and grand hotels of Venice."
-Tintin in the New World by Frederic Tuten, p 135
July 10, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word estivate
"Galápagos giant tortoises crop the lawn. Burmese stars, Egyptians, Chacos form Argentina, all snooze, munch, estivate under leaf cover, bask, and breed, sometimes noisily, with males groaning and shells clattering."
"Slow and Steady" by William Finnegan, p 59 of the January 23, 2012 issue of the New Yorker
February 14, 2012
qms commented on the word estivate
When striving and troublesome quest abate
And days of diversion and rest await,
I’ll work to no goal
Nor pay labor’s toll,
For starting tomorrow I’ll estivate.
June 20, 2018