Hibernate

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Hibernate \Hi"ber*nate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Hibernated}; p.
     pr. & vb. n. {Hibernating}.] [L. hibernare, hibernatum, fr.
     hibernus wintry. See {Hibernal}.]
     To winter; to pass the season of winter in close quarters, in
     a torpid or lethargic state, as certain mammals, reptiles,
     and insects.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           Inclination would lead me to hibernate, during half the
           year, in this uncomfortable climate of Great Britain.
                                                    --Southey.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  hibernate
       v 1: sleep during winter; "Bears must eat a lot of food before
            they hibernate in their caves" [syn: {hole up}] [ant: {estivate},
             {estivate}]
       2: be in an inactive or dormant state

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "hibernate":
     aestivate, be a sideliner, be latent, be still, coast, delay,
     do nothing, drift, escape notice, hang fire, have nothing on, idle,
     lay by, lay off, lay to, lie beneath, lie by, lie dormant,
     lie fallow, lie hid, lie idle, lie low, lie off, lie to, lie up,
     lurk, make no sign, not budge, not stir, rest, ride at anchor,
     sit back, sit it out, smolder, stagnate, underlie, vegetate,
     wait and see, watch and wait
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  HIBERNATE, v.i.  To pass the winter season in domestic seclusion. 
  There have been many singular popular notions about the hibernation of
  various animals.  Many believe that the bear hibernates during the
  whole winter and subsists by mechanically sucking its paws.  It is
  admitted that it comes out of its retirement in the spring so lean
  that it had to try twice before it can cast a shadow.  Three or four
  centuries ago, in England, no fact was better attested than that
  swallows passed the winter months in the mud at the bottom of their
  brooks, clinging together in globular masses.  They have apparently
  been compelled to give up the custom and account of the foulness of
  the brooks.  Sotus Ecobius discovered in Central Asia a whole nation
  of people who hibernate.  By some investigators, the fasting of Lent
  is supposed to have been originally a modified form of hibernation, to
  which the Church gave a religious significance; but this view was
  strenuously opposed by that eminent authority, Bishop Kip, who did not
  wish any honors denied to the memory of the Founder of his family.