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hibernate

[hahy-ber-nayt] / ˈhaɪ bərˌneɪt /
VERB
lie dormant; sleep through cold weather
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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In “Rare Bird” a woman in 18th-century England finds pleasure in the company of a new friend, who helps her test a claim from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus that swallows hibernate underwater.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

"We know they come here to mate, to hibernate, but what we don't know is why they make this journey."

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2025

Though fence lizards don’t hibernate, they become sluggish in winter, which is why these days, warmed by the sun and driven by the urge to mate, they’re once more appearing all over.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2025

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that, after infecting a person, tend to hibernate in the body.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025

We had been worked so hard and fed so little all our bodies wanted to do was hibernate, like bears.

From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz

Its full life cycle remains a mystery, but it probably includes a cyst stage that hibernates on the lake bottom until it’s triggered to divide and release new cells.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

As the temperature cools, the Harlequin hibernates for the winter in buildings - including homes.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2018

A white dwarf star gathers hydrogen from its neighbor for 100,000 years, erupts, hibernates, goes through a dwarf-nova stage — and does it all over again, possibly for a billion years.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2017

He’s like an actor who puts everything into a night onstage and then hibernates for the next month.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2016

Come summer he gets dozy and hibernates through to autumn, and I can speak a bit better.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

The glove maker’s plant utilization rates are above 96%, excluding hibernated plants, he notes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026

"Blue-tongued skinks hibernated under the garage and at night blue-banded and teddy-bear bees slept in the hedges under the front window," Dr Holden said.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 8, 2023

Aristotle thought that some birds such as swallows hibernated in the colder months and that others transformed into different species—redstarts turned into robins for the winter, he proposed.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 15, 2022

One sequence cannot do this game justice, not during a 10-2 defeat to the Cubs when the Dodgers’ lineup hibernated, the pitchers quivered and the defense self-destructed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2016

So I took to the cellar; I hibernated.

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

As hibernating animals, marmots put on weight before winter.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

In this intimate portion of the book, we receive glimpses of two passionate artists hibernating, in love.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2025

My default seems to be crawling into myself and hibernating with warm, soft-baked Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies with a glass of oat milk.

From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2025

These field exposure estimates informed subsequent studies on the impact of such exposure on hibernating bumble bee queens and the hoary squash bee, a solitary ground-nesting species.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 18, 2024

“I looked in on them about ten minutes ago, Father. They’re both sleeping like hibernating squirrels. It’s not likely that they’ll wake until evening.”

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques




Vocabulary lists containing hibernate


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