gate

See also: Appendix:Variations of "gate"

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

    From Middle English gate (the forms ȝate and ȝeat yielded the dialectal doublet yate), from the plural of Old English ġeat (specifically gatu), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą (“hole, opening”).

    See also Old Norse gat, Swedish and Dutch gat, Low German Gaat, Gööt.

    Alternative forms

    Noun

    gate (plural gates)

    A gate.
    2. A doorlike structure outside a house.
    3. A doorway, opening, or passage in a fence or wall.
      Synonyms: doorway, entrance, passage
    4. A movable barrier.
      The gate in front of the railroad crossing went up after the train had passed.
    5. A passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark.
      1. (by extension) A place for a vehicle or aircraft to stop and be boarded, numbered or otherwise labelled.
        • 2026 August 21, Raj Kumar, Korean Air Travel Guide: Booking, Baggage, Check-In, SkyTeam Miles and Seoul Connections, Rajkumar, page 28:
          If the flight is operated from a bus gate, passengers may be transported from the terminal to the aircraft by airport bus.
    6. A location which serves as a conduit for transport, migration, or trade.
      • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 246:
        Lyons and Fisher's stations, who have spared nothing to ensure a success on this point, there is every reason to believe that the Northern Territory will soon be able to make a proper use of her geographical position, and become the gate of the East for all the Australian colonies.
    7. The amount of money made by selling tickets to a concert or a sports event.
    8. (computing) A logical pathway made up of switches which turn on or off. Examples are and, or, nand, etc.
      Synonym: logic gate
    9. (electronics) The controlling terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
    10. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass through or into.
    11. (metalworking) The channel or opening through which metal is poured into the mould; the ingate; tedge.
    12. The waste piece of metal cast in the opening; a sprue or sullage piece. Also written geat and git.
    13. (cricket) The gap between a batsman's bat and pad.
      Singh was bowled through the gate, a very disappointing way for a world-class batsman to get out.
    14. (cinematography) A mechanism, in a film camera and projector, that holds each frame momentarily stationary behind the aperture.
      • 2023 March 16, John Boorman, “Today’s ‘films’ are nothing of the sort – so stop calling them that”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 October 2026:
        After all, not using film has advantages other than cost: the curse of getting a hair in the gate (the rectangular opening at the front of a camera) is gone; the problem of getting dirt on the film swept away.
    15. (flow cytometry) A line that separates particle type-clusters on two-dimensional dot plots.
    16. A tally mark consisting of four vertical bars crossed by a diagonal, representing a count of five.
    17. An individual theme park as part of a larger resort complex with multiple parks.
      • 1993 05, Rich Mannino, “The World According to Disney”, in Orange Coast Magazine, page 83:
        It would encompass more than 500 acres and include a new theme park, several hotels, two mammoth parking garages with direct access from the freeway and a "third gate" — land set aside for future expansion.
      • 2006 August 1, Shaun Finnie, The Disneylands That Never Were, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 168:
        Disneyland opened its second gate – Disney's California Adventure. It was located exactly where Westcot would have been, directly across a central plaza from the Disneyland main gate.
      • 2008 December 9, James B. Stewart, Disneywar: The Battle for the Magic Kingdom, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
        At Disneyland Paris, the much-delayed “second gate,” a Walt Disney Studios theme park, opened on March 16.
      • 2018 April 16, John Reynolds, Cambridge IGCSE First Language English 4th edition, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
        For its part, Universal is also continuing to grow domestically, with its new second gate in Orlando – Volcano Bay – opening around the same time as Pandora.
    18. (slang) A place where drugs are illegally sold.
      • 1996 April 24, “Connecticut: Task Force Successful In Curbing Street Gangs”, in Organized Crime Digest, volume 17, number 9, Annandale, V.A.: Washington Crime News Service, →OCLC, page 2, column 2:
        The gangs were fighting for control of "drug gates," control points for the sale of crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
      • 1996 June, Tupac Shakur, quotee, “Inside the Mind of Shakur”, in Tupac Shakur, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 101:
        I put more guns in East Coast niggas' hands than East Coast niggas did when they came out here. I put them niggas on to more weed gates and weed spots and safe havens and safe spots than the East Coast did.
      • 2007, Paul Christopher Johnson, Diaspora Conversions: Black Carib Religion and the Recovery of Africa, Berkeley, C.A. […]: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 56:
        The spatial mapping of Jamaica onto U.S. cities entails the erection of dance halls, reggae clubs, smoking yards or "weed gates," select storefront vendors of Rasta apparel, ritual paraphernalia, and ital ("natural" and approved) foods (Hepner 1998: 206).
      • 2018, U-God [Lamont Hawkins], Raw: My Journey Into The Wu-Tang, New York, N.Y.: Picador, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 69:
        The very first dread I worked with, Dusty, had his gate at 55 Bowen.
      • 2018, Robert Ricks, Fast Furious & Fatherless: An Urban Tale, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu Publishing Services, →ISBN, page 244:
        There's not a gate in the West Side area that lasts longer than a month other than the ones I service. Gates go up and come down just as fast.
    19. (dated, jive talk) A man; a male person.
      Synonyms: cat, dude, guy; see also Thesaurus:man
      • 1939, Cab Calloway, Frank Froeba, Jack Palmer, “Jumpin' Jive”:
        Whatcha gonna say there, gate?
      • 1940, Louis Jordan, “June Teenth Jamboree”, performed by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five:
        He said, "Come on, gates, and jump with me / At the June Teenth Jamboree."
      • 1944 December 8, “Broadway Jam Session”, in The Tampa Times:
        Louie wants you to get in there and lay yo' racket on that writin' machine so all the fine dinners and gates up in the land o' darkness will be hep and truck on down to this frolic pad 'cause the joint's really gonna be jumpin' and everythin' will be fine as wine like watermelon on the vine.
    20. (mining) A tunnel serving the coal face.
      Hyponyms: maingate, tailgate
    Derived terms
    Translations
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    Verb

    gate (third-person singular simple present gates, present participle gating, simple past and past participle gated)

    1. (transitive) To keep something inside by means of a closed gate.
    2. (transitive, Oxbridge slang, dated or historical) To punish (a student) by not allowing to leave the college grounds.
      Synonym: ground
      • 1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night:
        You climbed the wall, for which you ought to be gated; and finally, you came in blotto, for which you ought to be sent down.
      • 1971, E. M. Forster, chapter 13, in Maurice‎[3], Penguin, published 1972, page 72:
        “I’ve missed two lectures already,” remarked Maurice, who was breakfasting in his pyjamas.
        “Cut them all — he’ll only gate you.”
      • 2010, Thomas J. Schaeper, Kathleen Schaeper, “Yanks and Brits”, in Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite, New York, NY: Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 52:
        Dons could ring the front bell and be admitted after that hour. But students who returned after midnight or who stayed out all night were fined heavily or “gated” – that is, forbidden to leave college for several days.
    3. (transitive, biochemistry) To open (a closed ion channel).[1]
    4. (transitive) To furnish with a gate.
    5. (transitive) To turn (an image intensifier) on and off selectively, as needed or to avoid damage from excessive light exposure. See autogating.
    6. (transitive) To selectively regulate or restrict (access to something).
      Access to the building is gated by a security system.
      • 2024 September 28, HarryBlank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in SCP Foundation‎[4], archived from the original on 2 October 2024:
        Lillian walked the halls wearing a shirt plastered with what she assured everyone was a memetic stun agent; it looked just like the kill agent gating access to the SCP-001 database file, but as she patiently explained to McInnis, in art, context is everything.
    Derived terms

    Etymology 2

      Borrowed from Old Norse gata, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ. Cognate with Danish gade, Swedish gata, German Gasse (“lane”). Doublet of gait.

      Noun

      gate (plural gates)

      1. (now Scotland, Northern England) A way, path.
      2. (obsolete) A journey.
      3. (Scotland, Northern England) A street; now used especially as a combining form to make the name of a street e.g. "Briggate" (a common street name in the north of England meaning "Bridge Street") or "Kirkgate" meaning "Church Street".
      4. (UK, Scotland, dialect, archaic) Manner; gait.

      References

      1. ^ Alberts, Bruce; et al. "Figure 11-21: The gating of ion channels." In: Molecular Biology of the Cell, ed. Senior, Sarah Gibbs. New York: Garland Science, 2002 [cited 18 December 2009]. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=mboc4&part=A1986&rendertype=figure&id=A2030.

      Anagrams

      Afrikaans

      Noun

      gate

      1. plural of gat

      Anjam

      Noun

      gate

      1. head

      References

      Dutch

      Pronunciation

      • Audio:(file)

      Etymology 1

      Borrowed from English gate.

      Noun

      gate m (plural gates, diminutive gatetje n)

      1. airport gate

      Etymology 2

      Borrowed from English Watergate.

      Noun

      gate m (plural gates, diminutive gatetje n)

      1. (in compounds) scandal

      Haitian Creole

      Etymology

      From French gâter (“to spoil”).

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ɡate/

      Verb

      gate

      1. (transitive) to spoil, to ruin, to wreck

      References

      • Targète, Jean; Urciolo, Raphael (1993), Haitian Creole-English Dictionary‎[5], Dunwoody Press, →ISBN, page 74

      Loloda

      Etymology

      Ultimately from Proto-North Halmahera *gate; compare Galela gate, Ternate gate.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ˈɡa.te/

      Noun

      gate

      1. the liver

      References

      • M. J. van Baarda (1904), Het Lòda'sch, in vergelijking met het Galėla'sch dialect op Halmaheira

      Mauritian Creole

      Etymology 1

      From English gate.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ɡeːt/

      Noun

      gate

      1. gate
      2. entrance door

      Etymology 2

      From French gâté (“pampered”).

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ɡate/

      Noun

      gate

      1. darling, sweetheart
        Synonym: cheri

      Adjective

      gate

      1. spoilt
      2. stale, expired

      Etymology 3

      From French gâter.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ɡate/

      Verb

      gate (medial form gat)

      1. to spoil, ruin
        Synonyms: abime, rwine

      References

      • Baker, Philip; Hookoomsing, Vinesh Y. (1987), Diksiyoner kreol morisyeṅ [Mauritian Creole Dictionary] (in French and English), Paris: L'Harmattan, →ISBN, page 116
      • Carpooran, Arnaud (2011), Diksioner Morisien [Mauritian Dictionary] (in Mauritian Creole), second edition, Éditions Le Printemps, →ISBN, page 392

      Middle English

      Etymology 1

        From Old English ġeat (singular, which yielded the forms with initial /j/) and its plural gatu (which yielded the forms with initial /ɡ/), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą.

        Alternative forms

        Pronunciation

        • IPA(key): /ɡaːt/, /ɡat/, /jɛt/, /jɛːt/, /jat/, /jaːt/

        Noun

        gate (plural gates or gaten or gate)

        2. An entryway or entrance to a settlement or building; a gateway.
        3. A gate (door barring an entrance or gap in a fence)
          • a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “2 Paralipomenon 6:28”, in Wycliffe's Bible:
            If hungur riſiþ in þe lond and peſtilence and ruſt and wynd diſtriynge cornes and a locuste and bꝛuke comeþ and if enemyes biſegen þe ȝatis of þe citee aftir þat þe cuntreis ben diſtried and al veniaunce and ſikenesse oppꝛeſſiþ […]
            If hunger rises in the land, and pestilence, rust, wind, destroying grain, and locusts and their young come, and if enemies besiege a city's gates after the city's surrounds are ruined, and when any destruction and disease oppresses (people) […]
        4. (figurative) A method or way of doing something or getting somewhere.
        5. (figurative) Any kind of entrance or entryway; e.g. a crossing through mountains.
        Derived terms
        Descendants
        • English: gate, yate
        • Scots: yett, yet, ȝett, ȝet
        • Yola: gaaute, gaat, yeat
        • → Middle Irish: *geta
        • → Welsh: gât, giât, iet, iet, gât, giât
        References

        Etymology 2

          From Old Norse gata, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ.

          Alternative forms

          Pronunciation

          • IPA(key): /ˈɡaːt(ə)/, /ˈɡat(ə)/

          Noun

          gate (plural gates)

          2. A way, path or avenue; a trail or route.
          3. A voyage, adventure or leaving; one's course on the road.
          4. The way which one acts; one's mode of behaviour:
            1. A way or procedure for doing something; a method.
            2. A moral or religious path; the course of one's life.
            3. (Late Middle English) One's lifestyle or demeanour; the way one chooses to act.
            4. (Late Middle English) Gait; the way one walks.
          Descendants
          References

          Nias

          Noun

          gate

          1. mutated form of ate (“liver”)

          Norwegian Bokmål

          Etymology

          From Old Norse gata.

          Noun

          gate f or m (definite singular gata or gaten, indefinite plural gater, definite plural gatene)

          1. a street

          Usage notes

          • One of the nouns whose feminine form is predominant in formal writing.

          Derived terms

          References

          Norwegian Nynorsk

          Alternative forms

          Etymology

          From Old Norse gata. Doublet of gote.

          Noun

          gate f (definite singular gata, indefinite plural gater, definite plural gatene)

          1. a street

          Derived terms

          References

          Old English

          Pronunciation

          • IPA(key): /ˈɡɑː.te/
          • Rhymes: -ɑː.te

          Noun

          gāte

          1. genitive singular of gāt

          Pali

          Alternative forms

          Alternative scripts
          • 𑀕𑀢𑁂 (Brahmi script)
          • गते (Devanagari script)
          • গতে (Bengali script)
          • ගතෙ (Sinhalese script)
          • ဂတေ or ၷတေ (Burmese script)
          • คเต or คะเต (Thai script)
          • ᨣᨲᩮ (Tai Tham script)
          • ຄເຕ or ຄະເຕ (Lao script)
          • គតេ (Khmer script)
          • 𑄉𑄖𑄬 (Chakma script)

          Adjective

          gate

          1. locative singular masculine/neuter & accusative plural masculine & vocative singular feminine of gata, which is past participle of gacchati (“to go”)

          Portuguese

          Etymology 1

            Unadapted borrowing from English gate.

            Pronunciation

            • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈɡejt͡ʃ/

            Noun

            gate m (plural gates)

            1. (electronics) gate (circuit that implements a logical operation)
              Synonym: (more common) porta

            Etymology 2

            Noun

            gate m (plural gates)

            1. (India) mountain
              Synonyms: monte, montanha

            Etymology 3

            Verb

            gate

            1. inflection of gatar:
              1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
              2. third-person singular imperative

            Further reading

            Scots

            Alternative forms

            Etymology

            Borrowed from Old Norse gata.

            Noun

            gate (plural gates)

            1. street, way, road, path

            Serbo-Croatian

            Noun

            gate (Cyrillic spelling гате)

            1. vocative singular of gat

            Ternate

            Etymology

            From Proto-North Halmahera *gate (“liver”). Compare Tidore gate.

            Pronunciation

            • IPA(key): /ˈɡa.te/

            Noun

            gate

            1. liver
            2. heart (as the seat of emotions)

            Synonyms

            References

            • Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh
            This page is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.