SALIVATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does salivate mean? 

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

1. produce saliva

2. be envious, desirous, eager for, or extremely happy about something

  Familiarity information: SALIVATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SALIVATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they salivate    ... he / she / it salivates   
Past simple: salivated   
Past participle: salivated   
-ing form: salivating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Produce saliva

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

We salivated when he described the great meal

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

act involuntarily; act reflexively (act in an uncontrolled manner)

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

dribble; drivel; drool; slabber; slaver; slobber (let saliva drivel from the mouth)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

saliva (a clear liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands of the mouth; moistens the mouth and starts the digestion of starches)

salivation (the secretion of saliva)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be envious, desirous, eager for, or extremely happy about something

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

drool; salivate

Context example:

She was salivating over the raise she anticipated

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

covet (wish, long, or crave for (something, especially the property of another person))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue salivate over the results of the experiment

 Context examples 

Named after the author of the experiments (Dr. I. Pavlov) in which dogs were conditioned to salivate at the sound of a tone.

(Pavlovian Conditioning, NCI Thesaurus)