propagate
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biology
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
Etymology: First attested in 1535; from Latin prōpāgātus, perfect passive participle of prōpāgō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Affixes: -ate
Inflected forms:
form: propagates
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: propagating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: propagated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: propagated
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: To cause to continue or multiply by generation, or successive production.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: June 1879, William Keith Brooks, Popular Science Monthly Volume 15 - The Condition of Women from a Zoological Point of View I
A marked bud-variation is of very rare occurrence, but in many cases the tendency of plants raised from seeds to differ from the parents is so great that choice varieties are propagated entirely by buds. It is almost hopeless to attempt to propagate a choice variety of grape or strawberry by seeds, as the individuals raised in this way seldom have the valuable qualities of their parents, and, although they may have new qualities of equal or greater value, the chances are of course greatly against this, since the possibility of undesirable variation is much greater than the chance of a desirable sport.
gloss: To cause to spread to extend; to impel or continue forward in space.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to propagate sound or light
gloss: To spread from person to person; to extend the knowledge of; to originate and spread; to carry from place to place; to disseminate.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: There began to appear from the East, cropping up now here, now there, but in general along lines of advance towards the West, individuals or small communities who proposed and propagated a new and, as they called it, a purified form of religion.
The works of the freethinker Averroes (twelfth century) which were based on Aristotle's philosophy, propagated a small wave of rationalism in Christian countries.
The DPRK propagated an extraordinary tale of his birth occurring on Mount Baekdu, one of Korea's most revered sites, being accompanied by shooting stars in the sky.
gloss: To multiply; to increase.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, / Which thou wilt propagate.
gloss: To generate; to produce.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: But to [Edmund] Burke, […] the mere act of movement became the principle or cause of movement. Motion propagated motion, and life threw off life.
gloss: To be propagated; to travel.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To produce young; to be produced or multiplied by generation, or by new shoots or plants.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: As pigeons propagate so rapidly, I suppose that a thousand or fifteen hundred birds would have to be annually killed by mere chance.
gloss: To take effect on all relevant devices in a network.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: It takes 24 hours for password changes to propagate throughout the system.
gloss: To cause to take effect on all relevant devices in a network.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The server propagates the password file at midnight each day.
Related words: propagable
propagatable
Derived words: backpropagate
copropagating
counterpropagate
micropropagate
micropropagated
nonpropagating
propagation
propagative
propagator
propagatory
propagon
self-propagate
unpropagated
Translations: