Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To carry within the uterus from conception to delivery.
  • intransitive verb To conceive and develop in the mind.
  • intransitive verb To gestate offspring.
  • intransitive verb To develop gradually.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To carry in the womb during the natural period of fetal development; hence, figuratively, to form and gradually mature (some project) in the mind, to be brought forth in due time.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.
  • verb by analogy To develop an idea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be pregnant with
  • verb have the idea for

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from gestation.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • a bizarre new addition to corpspeak lexicon?

    Today in a meeting one of my coworkers said "Let's gestate this," as some kind of coda, tabling a discussion.

    Also: twitter spambots seem to have this word in heavy rotation at the moment: see Tweets

    May 3, 2013