Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To breed rapidly or abundantly.
- intransitive verb To be or increase in great numbers.
- intransitive verb To teem; swarm.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To germinate; bud.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To germinate; to bud; to multiply abundantly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
rapidly multiply . - verb To
germinate . - verb To
teem with; to be filled with.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb move in large numbers
- verb breed freely and abundantly
- verb be teeming, be abuzz
- verb produce buds, branches, or germinate
- verb become abundant; increase rapidly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To remember the history of "pullulate," think chickens.
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This may sound like odd advice, but it makes sense if you know that "pullulate" traces ultimately to the Latin noun "pullus," which means not only "sprout," but also "young of an animal" and, specifically,
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At first "pullulate" referred to sprouting, budding, and breeding around the farm; only later did it gain its
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May a corroding colony of carking cares be ever ready to pullulate afresh out of the secret springs of your anticipated comforts! and may the purgatorial pitch of the Slough of Despond envelope you eternally like flies in amber!
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Therefore spodizators, gesinins, memains, and parazons, be not culpable of dilatory protractions in the apposition of every re-roborating species, but rather let them pullulate and superabound on the tables.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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Therefore spodizators, gesinins, memains, and parazons, be not culpable of dilatory protractions in the apposition of every re-roborating species, but rather let them pullulate and superabound on the tables.
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002
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His favorite ejaculation, "Lord!" occurs but once that I have observed in 1660, never in '61, twice in' 62, and at least five times in '63; after which the "Lords" may be said to pullulate like herrings, with here and there a solitary "damned," as it were a whale among the shoal.
Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American Various
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"His favourite ejaculation, 'Lord!' occurs," he declares, "but once that I have observed in 1660, never in '61, twice in' 62, and at least five times in '63; after which the' Lords 'may be said to pullulate like herrings, with here and there a solitary' damned, 'as it were a whale among the shoal."
The Art of Letters Robert Lynd 1914
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There is no fear that the professors who pullulate all over the Baltic Plain will overcome the
The Appetite of Tyranny Including Letters to an Old Garibaldian 1905
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Hotels will appear out of the ground, guides and touts will pullulate at the railway station, the tour of the ruins will be mapped out, and the tourists and globe - trotters of the whole planet will follow that tour in batches like staring sheep.
Over There War Scenes on the Western Front Arnold Bennett 1899
sarra commented on the word pullulate
ah! I'd forgotten this one! Thank you, Latin; I miss you.
May 10, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word pullulate
join the teem, and skim the cream
May 12, 2008
blafferty commented on the word pullulate
This word (along with its various forms) gives me the creeps. Reminds me of
May 10, 2011