percolate

_percolate_

Verb.

Pronunciation and accent: pɜːkəleɪt.

Etymology: from Latin percolatus, preterite participle of percōlāre (= to percolate), from per (= through) + colare (= to strain).

Preterite tense: percolated. Preterite participle: percolated.

Present participle: percolating.

Transitively: 1. To cause (a liquid) to undergo percolation or to move through interstices of a porous substance or a perforated medium.

Synonyms: to filter; strain.

Translation: filtrer, in French; filtrar, in Spanish; filtrare, in Italian.

As what is in the air necessarily mixes itself with water, it hence appears impossible to have such a thing as pure water. If you percolate it through sand, or squeeze it through pumice, or pass it through any other body of the same kind, you will always have salt remaining.

Richard Lobb… The contemplative philosopher

2. Hence: to cause hot water to filter through (coffee) to extract its drinkable substance; to decoct (coffee) in a percolator.

3. (Of a liquid) to filter through (a porous medium); to permeate.

When treating of springs and overflowing wells, I have stated that porous rocks are percolated by fresh water to great depths, and that sea-water probably penetrates in the same manner through the rocks...

Charles Lyell… Principles of geology

The usual way of draining a bog, is to make an opening round the upper part, to intercept the water as it descends from the higher grounds, and prevent its percolating the land to be restored.

John I Knight… Mechanics Magazine

Intransitively: 1. (Of a liquid) to move through the interstices of a porous substance or a perforated medium.

Synonyms: to filter, strain, ooze.

In the deeper parts of the river no accumulation of these crystals is visible; but in the shallows, where the water percolates through or over a pebbly bottom, there the crystals are intercepted between the interstices of the stones…

John Loudon… The magazine of natural history

It is clearly proved by the experiments of Agassiz and others that the glacier is not a mass of ice, but of ice and water, the latter percolating […] through the crevices of the former to all depths of the glacier.

John Tyndall… The Glaciers of the Alps

Large drops of water percolating through the arch of the cave dropped with a heavy splash upon the ground.

George Rainsford… The False Heir

The water is continually percolating through the top, and has formed stalactites of various forms; many of which are conical, and some have the appearance of massive columns.

Samuel Williams… History of Vermont

-) By metaphor:

The news seemed to have percolated through to the rest of the town, for men were gathering on all sides, just as men gather in civilized cities on receipt of news of national importance.

Ridgewell Cullum… The Watchers of the Plains

2. In particular: (of coffee) to be decocted by percolation.

The coffee was percolating.

Randy J. Harvey… Thomas Clayton

Waiting for my coffee to percolate, my cell beeped with a text.

Ava Stone… Live Like You Mean It

Allow the coffee to percolate 5 to 8 minutes.

Life, 1944

Words derived from the verb PERCOLATE: percolator, percolative, percolation, percolated, percolating.