regurgitate

From Late Latin regurgitatus, past participle of regurgitare, combined form of re- (“back”) + gurgitare (“to engulf, flood”), from gurges (“whirlpool, gulf, sea, abyss”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈɡɝ.d͡ʒəˌteɪt/; enPR: rĭ-gərˈ-jə-tāt

• Audio (US):

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regurgitate (third-person singular simple present regurgitates, present participle regurgitating, simple past and past participle regurgitated)

1. (transitive) To throw up or vomit; to eject what has previously been swallowed.
   • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season ”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 23 December 2014:

     […] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.

2. (transitive) To cough up from the gut to feed its young, as an animal or bird does.

   The young gulls were fed by their mother’s regurgitated food.

3. (transitive, figurative, sometimes derogatory) To repeat (information) verbatim or by rote, typically after learning it without actual comprehension.
   • 2023 February 9, Ted Chiang, “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web”, in The New Yorker‎:

     The fact that ChatGPT rephrases material from the Web instead of quoting it word for word makes it seem like a student expressing ideas in her own words, rather than simply regurgitating what she’s read […]

4. (intransitive) To be thrown or poured back; to rush or surge back.

   Food may regurgitate from the stomach into the mouth.

• (to throw up or vomit): vomit, throw up, cast, disgorge, retch, puke, barf, spew, upchuck
• See also Thesaurus:regurgitate

regurgitate (plural regurgitates)

1. Something regurgitated; regurgitated matter.
   • 2021, Alice A. Horton, Isobelle Blissett, Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Freshwater Aquatic, Terrestrial and Avian Migratory Species in the Asia and Pacific Region, Convention on Migratory Species, page 22:

     However, the growing prevalence of plastics in some areas means these can be difficult for albatrosses to distinguish, leading to accidental ingestion. These may then accumulate in the gut or be passed to offspring through regurgitates.

• regurgitation
• regurgitative

• “regurgitate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “regurgitate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

regurgitate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of regurgitar combined with te