MEDITATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does meditate mean? 

• MEDITATE (verb)
  The verb MEDITATE has 2 senses:

1. reflect deeply on a subject

2. think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes

  Familiarity information: MEDITATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEDITATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they meditate    ... he / she / it meditates   
Past simple: meditated   
Past participle: meditated   
-ing form: meditating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reflect deeply on a subject

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

chew over; contemplate; excogitate; meditate; mull; mull over; muse; ponder; reflect; ruminate; speculate; think over

Context example:

The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate

Hypernyms (to "meditate" is one way to...):

cerebrate; cogitate; think (use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "meditate"):

premeditate (think or reflect beforehand or in advance)

theologise; theologize (make theoretical speculations about theology or discuss theological subjects)

introspect (reflect on one's own thoughts and feelings)

bethink (consider or ponder something carefully)

cogitate (consider carefully and deeply; reflect upon; turn over in one's mind)

question; wonder (place in doubt or express doubtful speculation)

puzzle (be uncertain about; think about without fully understanding or being able to decide)

consider; study (give careful consideration to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

meditation (continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature)

meditative (deeply or seriously thoughtful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

contemplate; meditate; study

Context example:

He is meditating in his study

Hypernyms (to "meditate" is one way to...):

cerebrate; cogitate; think (use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

meditation (continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature)

meditation ((religion) contemplation of spiritual matters (usually on religious or philosophical subjects))

meditative (deeply or seriously thoughtful)

 Context examples 

After this speech the two girls sat many minutes silent, each thoughtful: Fanny meditating on the different sorts of friendship in the world, Mary on something of less philosophic tendency.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So I thought at the time; but, ah me, little I knew him or knew that even then, perhaps, he was meditating an outbreak more terrible than any I had seen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Thorpe talked to his horse, and she meditated, by turns, on broken promises and broken arches, phaetons and false hangings, Tilneys and trap-doors.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

As I was meditating on this discovery, a little girl, followed by her attendant, came running up the lawn.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Emma's eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating, in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He smiled to himself and meditated.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I broke from the house angry and disturbed and retired to meditate on some other mode of action.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Participants who meditated during naloxone administration also had significantly greater reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness than the control groups.

(Scientists discover non-opioid pain pathway in the brain, NIH)

When he gave his promise to his father, he meditated within himself to increase the fortunes of his sisters by the present of a thousand pounds a-piece.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)