librate
English
Etymology 1
From Medieval Latin lībrāta, from Latin lībra (“pound”).
Noun
librate (plural librates)
- (now historical) A piece of land having a value of one pound per year.
Etymology 2
![](Images/wiktionary/Libration.gif)
A librating molecule.
From the participle stem of Latin lībrāre, from lībra (“a balance”).
Verb
librate (third-person singular simple present librates, present participle librating, simple past and past participle librated)
- (obsolete, transitive) To place in a balance; to weigh.
- (intransitive) To oscillate (like the beam of a balance).
- 1796, William Cliffton, The Group:
- Their parts all librate on too nice a beam.
- 1796, William Cliffton, The Group:
- (intransitive) To be poised; to balance oneself.
- 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, p. 138:
- Her playful Sea-horse […] His watery way with waving volutes wins, / Or listening librates on unmoving fins.
- 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation, J. Johnson, p. 138:
Related terms
- libration
Translations
to oscillate
|
to be poised, to balance
|
References
- OED 2nd edition 1989
Anagrams
- altbier, betrail, tablier, triable, trilabe
Italian
Verb
librate
- inflection of librarsi:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Participle
librate f pl
- feminine plural of librato
Anagrams
- blateri, libertà, retabli, ribalte, tribale
Latin
Participle
lībrāte
- vocative masculine singular of lībrātus
References
- “librate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press