reverberate

English

Alternative forms

reverbate (rare)

Etymology

From Latin reverberātus, past participle of reverberō (“to rebound”), from re- and verberō (“to beat”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvɜː(ɹ).bəɹ.eɪt/
Audio (US) (file)

Verb

reverberate (third-person singular simple present reverberates, present participle reverberating, simple past and past participle reverberated)

(intransitive) To ring or sound with many echos.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 239:
  The depths of its old forest reverberated to the echoing thunder, and many a stately tree stood scorched and blackening, to whose withered boughs spring would now return in vain.
- 1959, Moore Raymond, Smiley Roams the Road, London: Hulton Press, page 131:
  It did not occur to him to be afraid of the vivid fork lightning or the loud thunder that reverberated down the valley.
(intransitive) To have a lasting effect.
- 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times‎:
  What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.
(intransitive) To repeatedly return.
To return or send back; to repel or drive back; to echo, as sound; to reflect, as light, as light or heat.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:
  who, like an arch, reverberates the voice again
To send or force back; to repel from side to side.
Flame is reverberated in a furnace.
To fuse by reverberated heat.
- 1642, Tho[mas] Browne, “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici. […], 4th edition, London: […] E. Cotes for Andrew Crook […], published 1656, OCLC 927499620:
  reverberated into glass
(intransitive) To rebound or recoil.
(intransitive) To shine or reflect (from a surface, etc.).
(obsolete) To shine or glow (on something) with reflected light.

Related terms

reverberant
reverberation
reverberator
reverberatory
reverberative

Translations

to ring with many echos

Bulgarian: ехтя (bg) (ehtja)
Catalan: reverberar (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
Finnish: kajahdella (fi), kaikua (fi)
French: réverbérer (fr)
German: nachhallen (de), nachklingen (de), nachdröhnen
Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
Irish: aisfhuaimnigh, macalla a dhéanamh (ga)
Italian: riecheggiare (it)
Japanese: please add this translation if you can
Manx: aaheean
Maori: wheoro, pāorooro
Norwegian: runge
Russian: раздава́ться (ru) (razdavátʹsja)
Sanskrit: स्तनति (stanati)
Spanish: reverberar (es)

to have a lasting effect

Catalan: reverberar (ca)
Finnish: heijastua (fi)
Italian: riverberare (it)

to repeatedly return

Bulgarian: отеквам (bg) (otekvam)
Catalan: reverberar (ca)
Finnish: palailla (fi)
French: résonner (fr)

to rebound or recoil

Bulgarian: отразявам се (otrazjavam se)
Finnish: kimmota (fi)

to shire or reflect

Bulgarian: блестя (bg) (blestja), отразявам се от (otrazjavam se ot)
Finnish: heijastua (fi)
Spanish: reverberar (es)

obsolete: to shine or glow

Catalan: reverberar (ca)
Finnish: kiiltää (fi), hohtaa (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Greek: ^{(please verify)} αντηχώ (el) (antichó) (1)
Spanish: ^{(please verify)} reverberar (es)

References

“reverberate”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

Adjective

reverberate (comparative more reverberate, superlative most reverberate)

reverberant
- c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene v]:
  the reverberate hills
Driven back, as sound; reflected.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 9 p. 145:
  With the reverberate sound the spacious ayre did fill

Latin

Participle

reverberāte

vocative masculine singular of reverberātus