Percolate

//ˈpɜːkəleɪt// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A liquid that has been percolated. rare

    "Fluidextracts are liquid alcoholic preparations of uniform and definite strength, made by percolating drugs with menstrua, and concentrating a portion of the percolate […]"

  2. 2
    the product of percolation wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To pass a liquid through a porous substance; to filter. transitive

    "Fluidextracts are liquid alcoholic preparations of uniform and definite strength, made by percolating drugs with menstrua, and concentrating a portion of the percolate […]"

  2. 2
    gain or regain energy wordnet
  3. 3
    To drain or seep through a porous substance. intransitive

    "Water percolates through sand."

  4. 4
    pass through wordnet
  5. 5
    To make (coffee) in a percolator. transitive

    "I'll percolate some coffee."

Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance in order to extract a soluble constituent wordnet
  2. 7
    (of coffee) to be prepared by percolation; (of a coffee pot) to brew coffee in this way. intransitive
  3. 8
    prepare in a percolator wordnet
  4. 9
    To spread slowly or gradually; to slowly become noticed or realised. figuratively, intransitive

    "Reports on the pitiful state of many prisons have finally percolated through to the Home Office, which has promised to look into the situation."

  5. 10
    spread gradually wordnet
  6. 11
    permeate or penetrate gradually wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
leachabsorbactadsorbassimilatebathe

Example

More examples

""Good morning, Mary! This is your telephone speaking. You have 169 unread messages." "From how many senders?" "One." "I can guess, but I'll ask anyway: who is it?" "Tom." "Mark them as read and move them to the bin, please." "Done. Shall I percolate your coffee now?""

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin percōlātus, perfect passive participle of percōlō (“to filter”), itself, from per (“through”) + cōlō (“to strain”) (from cōlum (“a strainer”), of unknown origin); see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.