syncopate, v.
(ˈsɪŋkəpeɪt)
[f. late L. syncopāt-, pa. ppl. stem of syncopāre to affect with syncope, f. syncopē syncope.]
1. Gram. trans. To cut short or contract (a word) by omitting one or more syllables or letters in the middle; also pass. to be produced by syncopation.
| 1605 Camden Rem., Surnames 130 The tyran Time which hath swallowed many names, hath also in vse of speach, changed more by contracting, syncopating, curtelling, and mollifying them. 1848 Veitch Grk. Verbs Irreg. & Defect. s.v. θνήσκω, It is said that τεθνεώς is never syncopated τεθνώς. 1857 Jos. Currie Notes to Horace, Sat. i. ii. 113 Soldo is syncopated for solido. 1861 Hadley Grk. Gram. (1884) 47 Δηµήτηρ..syncopates all the oblique cases. |
2. Mus. a. trans. To begin (a note) on an unaccented part of the bar and sustain it into the accented part; to introduce syncopation into (a passage). b. intr. To be marked by syncopation.
| [1667, 1752: see syncopated 2.] 1776 Burney Hist. Mus. I. vii. 103 [It] disturbs the metre, and syncopates the music. 1793 Encycl. Brit. (1797) XII. 538 note, When the treble syncopates in descending diatonically. |
3. fig. and transf. or allusively.
| 1904 Blackburn Rich. Hartley ii. 17 A succession of shrill yells, and oaths.., syncopated by the swish of the sjambok. 1908 ‘Ian Hay’ Right Stuff xi, A retired Admiral.., whose forty years' official connection with Britannia's realm betrayed itself in a nautical roll, syncopated by gout. 1928 Sunday Express 27 May 15 Her eager feet, that used to patter back and forth in happy household duties, now syncopate to the beat of drums and the clashing of cymbals. 1966 Listener 28 July 142/3 At the back of Albéniz's mind there is generally..a dancer whose castanets are always syncopating against each other. 1983 P. Inchbald Short Break in Venice xx. 190 They passed a lighthouse syncopating white above with green below. |