Pulverate
adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A powdered preparation of some substance.
"From 1957, aerial dusting was widely applied, water reservoirs were treated with 12% gammexane (hexachlorocyclohexane) pulverate and large areas were smoked with NBC smoke generators."
- 1 To beat or reduce to powder or dust; to pulverise. transitive
"Pulverate and mix them with Turpentine; then put them in a glass Alembick, and adde to them Camphyr, and Amber-grise, of each 3 ij."
- 2 To break up soil or organic matter into a fine, powdery texture, often by means of a special plow. ambitransitive
"Have not we all seen the changed texture and productive quality of a weathered subsoil; seen the sterile clay from the deep drain moulder into manageable and wholesome soil under the culture of a single wintering: reminding us of the saying of Dr. Clarke, that "the frost is God's plough, which he drives through every inch of ground," pulverating and fructifying all ?"
- 3 To crush or subdue; to overwhelm. figuratively, transitive
"This subordination of the life to the ideal constitutes the vigorous foundation of his mannish personality. Mousinho's pulverating vocation can be summed up in the following word of immense meaning : «Serving»."
- 4 To take a dust bath. intransitive
"If the cock be observed to scrape straw together, and rub himself in it, it is no more than what cocks and hens continually do, in heaps of dust, &c., when they have no thought of incubation, but merely from their pulverating instinct."
- 5 To be powdery or granular.
"Considerably quantities of pulverating feldspar are found on the rising ground, washed by the rains, near the Guapo mouth and on its left banks."
- 1 Having a powdery or granular texture;
"interior tube extends until its diameter attains the size of the interior peridium . It is constant yellowish white , pulverate ."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Pulverate and mix them with Turpentine; then put them in a glass Alembick, and adde to them Camphyr, and Amber-grise, of each 3 ij."
Etymology
From Latin pulveratus, past participle of pulverare (“to pulverize”). See pulverize.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.