▪ I. gyrate, a.
(ˈdʒaɪərət)
[ad. L. gȳrāt-us rounded, pa. pple. of gȳrāre: see gyre v.]
Arranged in rings or convolutions. In Botany = circinate; also, see quot. 1836.
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 245 The peculiar gyrate vernation of the leaves of Cycadeæ. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 253/1 Gyrate, see Circinate. Also, surrounded by an elastic ring, as the theca of ferns. 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. iv. (1858) 25 Flowers regular, with straight anther-valves,..and gyrate foliation. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 211 A circinate or gyrate cyme. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Theory & Pract. Med. (ed. 2) 324 Sinuous or gyrate bullous bands. 1878 Nicholson in Encycl. Brit. VI. 373/2 By this ‘serial’ growth the corallum becomes ‘gyrate’ or ‘meandrine’. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 278 The gyrate or ringed form of the patches. |
▪ II. gyrate, v.
(ˈdʒaɪəreɪt, -ˈreɪt)
[f. L. gȳrāt-, ppl. stem of gȳrāre: see gyre v.]
intr. To move in a circle or spiral; to revolve, usually round a fixed point or on an axis; to rotate, whirl.
| 1830 Fraser's Mag. I. 32 Undefined comets that gyrate equally through suns, earths, and satellites. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Swedenborg Wks. (Bohn) I. 318 The globule of blood gyrates around its own axis in the human veins, as the planet in the sky. 1858 G. Macdonald Phantastes xvii. 211 With a somerset and a run, [he] threw himself gyrating into the air. 1892 Stevenson Across the Plains 191 Came the dusty night-fliers, to gyrate for one brilliant instant round the flame. |
| fig. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird II. 124 The rest of Paris was gyrating in the whirlpool of fashionable pleasure. |
Hence gyˈrated ppl. a. = gyrate a.; gyˈrating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 458 Gyrated dry scall. Ibid. 459 The Gyrated Variety [of psoriasis] runs in a migratory course. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. iii. i, His..gyratings are at an end. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) xix. §795 The gyrating column is never hundreds of miles in diameter. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. vii. 242 A kind of mystery attaches itself to gyrating water. 1884 Daily News 24 Apr. 6 Other articles in the house appearing to perform a gyrating movement. |