Word
hibernate
Phoneticshi·ber·nate
US/ˈhaɪbɝˌneɪt/
UK/hˈaɪbənˌeɪt/
Definition
v. to sleep for a long time during the winter, or to put a computer into a deep sleep to save power. In both cases, the system stops working until it is time to wake up again.
v. to undergo a period of inactivity and metabolic depression during winter; in computing, to save the current state of the system to disk and power down. Often used metaphorically to describe a person or project that is inactive for an extended period.
Examples
“The bear will hibernate in its cave until spring.”
“To save battery life, the laptop will hibernate if you do not use it for an hour.”
“While the software was designed to hibernate during periods of low demand, the developers discovered that the process occasionally caused data corruption if interrupted by a sudden power loss.”
Examples
simple
“The bear will hibernate in its cave until spring.”
contextual
“To save battery life, the laptop will hibernate if you do not use it for an hour.”
complex
“While the software was designed to hibernate during periods of low demand, the developers discovered that the process occasionally caused data corruption if interrupted by a sudden power loss.”
Real-World Examples
“We've learned that marmots don't physiologically age when they hibernate.” Etymology
Borrowed from Latin hībernātus, perfect passive participle of hībernō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from hībernus (“wintry”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domains
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