lactate
- 01 C1 Advanced
a substance your body produces, especially during hard exercise.
any salt or ester of lactic acid; specifically the conjugate base of lactic acid produced during anaerobic metabolism.
Simple“Athletes often monitor their lactate levels to see how hard they are training.”
In context“During high-intensity interval training, the accumulation of blood lactate can serve as a marker for the anaerobic threshold.”
UsageUsually treated as an uncountable noun when referring to the substance in the blood.
Synonymslactic acid salt
“Men attempting to lactate to feed a baby is child abuse.”
Borrowed from Latin lactātus, perfect passive participle of lactō (“to suckle, give suck, contain milk”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from lac (“milk”), cognate to Ancient Greek γάλα (gála, “milk”).
From lactic acid + -ate (“salt or ester”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.