English

Verb

regurgitate ‎(third-person singular simple present regurgitates, present participle regurgitating, simple past and past participle regurgitated)

1. (transitive) To throw up or vomit; to eject what has previously been swallowed.
   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, p. 7]”, in The New York Times:

     […] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.

2. (transitive) To cough up from the gut to feed its young, as a bird or animal does.

   The young gulls were fed by their mother's regurgitated food.

3. (transitive, by extension) To repeat verbatim.
4. (intransitive) To be thrown or poured back; to rush or surge back.

   Food may regurgitate from the stomach into the mouth.

Synonyms

• (to throw up or vomit): vomit, throw up, cast, disgorge, retch, puke, barf, spew, upchuck
• See also Wikisaurus:regurgitate

Related terms

• regurgitation
• regurgitative

Translations

External links

• regurgitate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• regurgitate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911