Word: reverberate Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Borrowed from Latin reverberātus, perfect passive participle of reverberō (“to rebound; to reflect; to repel”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), whence Middle French reverberer (French réverbérer) and Middle English reverberen (“to send back”)), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) and verberō (“to beat; to lash, whip”) (from verber (“rod; lash, whip”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈvɜːbəˌɹeɪt/, /ɹəˈvɜɹbəˌɹeɪt/, /ɹi-/ 1. To cause (a sound) to be (repeatedly) bounced against one or more surfaces; to re-echo. Labels: transitive Example: [N]o man is the Lord of any thing: / Though in and of him there be much conſiſting, / Till he communicate his parts to others, / Nor doth hee of himſelfe knovv them for aught: / Till he behold them formed in the applauſe. / VVhere th'are extended: vvho like an arch reuerb'rate / The voice againe or like a gate of ſteele: / Fronting the Sunne, receiues and renders back / His figure and his heate. Example: [S]oundes doe riſe / By mens force vnder feete, vvounded vvith noyſe / The hilles to heav'n reverberate their voyce. 2. Followed by on (to): to deflect or divert (flames, heat, etc.) on to something. Labels: transitive Example: Flame is reverberated in a furnace. 3. To heat (something) by deflecting flames on to, or passing flames over, it. Labels: archaic, transitive Example: Svb[tle]. […] I ſent you of his fæces there, calcin'd. / Out of that calx, I'ha'vvonne the ſalt of Mercurie. / Mam[mon]. By pouring on your rectefied vvater? / Svb. Yes, and reuerberating in Athanor. Example: Philoſophers that opinioned the vvorlds deſtruction by fire, did never dreame of annihilation, vvhich is beyond the povver of ſublunary cauſes; for the laſt and proper action of that element [fire] is but vitrification, or a reduction of a body into Glaſſe, and therefore ſome of our Chymicks factiouſly affirme; yea, and urge Scripture for it, that at the laſt fire all ſhall be cryſtallized and reverberated into Glaſſe, vvhich is the utmoſt action of that element. 4. To repeatedly reflect (heat, light, or other radiation). Labels: transitive Example: Fifteen Moſques profeſſe their bravery, […] the tops dignified by many double guilded creſcents or ſpires vvhich gallantly reverberate Apollo’s yellovv flames [sunbeams] in a rich and delightfull ſplendor. Example: It [the left ventricle of the heart] hath thicker VValls, more compacted fleſhy Pillars, vvherevvith the heat is both more eaſily preſerved and reverberated, and the blood more ſtrongly driven. 5. To drive, force, or push (someone or something) back; to repel, to repulse. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: This banke is ſo neceſſary a defence for the Citie, that it ſerueth in ſteed of a ſtrong vvall to repulſe and reuerberate the violence of the furious vvaues of the Sea. Example: In blovving vveather, I am told, moſt of the houſes in this hill are ſmothered vvith ſmoke, forced dovvn the chimneys, by the guſts of vvind reverberated from the hill behind, […] 6. To send (something) back from where it came. Labels: obsolete, transitive 7. Of light or sound: to fall on or hit (a surface or other thing); also, to fill or spread throughout (a space or other thing). Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: Hovv ſtill your voice vvith prudent diſcipline / My Prentize ear doth oft reverberate; […] 8. To beat or hit (something) repeatedly. Labels: obsolete, rare, transitive 9. Of sound: to (repeatedly) bounce against one or more surfaces; to echo or re-echo, to resound. Labels: intransitive Example: [There were] innumerable Rills and Brooks of VVater falling from the Clifts, making a barbarous and unpleaſant Sound; and that Sound eccho'd and reverberated from innumerable Cavities and Hollovvs among the Rocks, […] Example: Sometimes as an echo thou [God] reverberatest pleasantly, now as a huntsman thou killest with arrows. 10. Chiefly followed by to or with: of a place or thing: to ring or vibrate with many echoing sounds; to re-echo, to resound. Labels: intransitive Example: This Revievv is in the firſt place entituled, An Eccho from the Sixth Trumpet; becauſe, it alluſively reverberateth, and Ecchoes, as it vvere, to vvhat vvas predicted ſhould come to paſs betvveen the ſounding of the Sixth and Seventh Trumpet [referred to in the Book of Revelation.] Example: The depths of its old forest reverberated to the echoing thunder, and many a stately tree stood scorched and blackening, to whose withered boughs spring would now return in vain. 11. Often followed by from: of heat or (less commonly) light: to be (repeatedly) reflected. Labels: intransitive 12. Of information, news, etc.: to be spread widely through repetition. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: They vvait till ſomething nevv comes out from others, examine its merits, and reject it, or make it reverberate throughout the reſt of Europe. 13. Of a thing: to have lasting and often significant effects. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: The shock—the shout—the groan of war— / Reverberate along that vale, / More suited to the shepherd's tale: […] Example: What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq. 14. Of a thing: to be heated by having flames, hot gases, etc., deflected or passed over it. Labels: intransitive, rare 15. To deflect or divert flames, hot gases, etc., on or into something. Labels: intransitive, obsolete 16. To shine on something, especially with reflected light. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: [Y]ou ſeem'd to reverberate upon me vvith the beams of the Sun, vvhich you knovv hath ſuch a povverful influence, and indeed too great a ſtroke in this Country: […] Example: Theſe Vermine are as great as a great Graſhopper, and have yellovv vvings, vve knovv of their coming a day before, not becauſe vve ſee them, but vve knovv it by the Sun, vvhich ſhevveth his beams of a yellovv colour, vvhich is a ſigne that they dravv near the Country, and the ground becoming yellovv, through the light vvhich reverberateth from their vvings, vvhereupon the people become ſuddenly as dead men, ſaying, vve are undone, for the Locuſts come. 17. Of a thing: to (repeatedly) bounce against one or more surfaces, especially with a sound; to rebound, to recoil. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: A stone dropped into one of them [a chasm] reverberated against the sides for apparently a very great depth, and, by its sound, indicated the same kind of substance with the surface, as long as the strokes could be heard. 18. Followed by on or upon, or to: of a thing: to return and affect a person, their feelings, etc.; to recoil. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: [S]he made all that one could tell her, all that one could describe, all that one could quote from a foreign author, reverberate, as it were, à plusieurs reprises [repeatedly], to one's own feelings, by the manifest impression it made upon hers. 19. Followed by in and a reflexive pronoun: of a thing: to turn back on itself. Labels: intransitive, obsolete, rare Example: A beam of light shone into the interior of a mirrored sphere would reverberate in itself. 20. Of a furnace, kiln, etc.: to heat up through the effect of flames, hot gases, etc., deflecting within it. Labels: intransitive, obsolete, rare 21. To heat something by deflecting flames on to, or passing flames over, it. Labels: intransitive, obsolete