reverberate

English

Alternative forms

• reverbate (rare)

Etymology

• From Latin reverberātus, past participle of reverberō (“to rebound”), from re- and verberō (“to beat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈvɜː(ɹ).bəɹ.eɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

reverberate (third-person singular simple present reverberates, present participle reverberating, simple past and past participle reverberated)

1. (intransitive) To ring or sound with many echos.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 239:

     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.

   • 1959, Moore Raymond, Smiley Roams the Road, London: Hulton Press, page 131:

     It did not occur to him to be afraid of the vivid fork lightning or the loud thunder that reverberated down the valley.

2. (intransitive) To have a lasting effect.
   • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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.

3. (intransitive) To repeatedly return.
4. To return or send back; to repel or drive back; to echo, as sound; to reflect, as light, as light or heat.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     who, like an arch, reverberates the voice again

   • 1908, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Of Bladesover House, and My Mother; and the Constitution of Society”, in Tono-Bungay […], Toronto, Ont.: The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd., →OCLC, 1st book (The Days before Tono-Bungay was Invented), section IV, page 17:

     They sat about in black and shiny and flouncey clothing adorned with gimp and beads, eating great quantities of cake, drinking much tea in a stately manner and reverberating remarks.

5. To send or force back; to repel from side to side.

   Flame is reverberated in a furnace.

6. To fuse by reverberated heat.
   • 1642, Tho[mas] Browne, “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici. […], 4th edition, London: […] E. Cotes for Andrew Crook […], published 1656, →OCLC:

     reverberated into glass

7. (intransitive) To rebound or recoil.
8. (intransitive) To shine or reflect (from a surface, etc.).
9. (obsolete) To shine or glow (on something) with reflected light.

Related terms

• reverberant
• reverberation
• reverberator
• reverberatory
• reverberative

Translations

to ring with many echos

• Bulgarian: ехтя (bg) (ehtja)
• Catalan: reverberar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: kajahdella (fi), kaikua (fi)
• French: réverbérer (fr)
• German: nachhallen (de), nachklingen (de), nachdröhnen
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: aisfhuaimnigh, macalla a dhéanamh (ga)
• Italian: riecheggiare (it)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Manx: aaheean
• Maori: wheoro, pāorooro
• Norwegian: runge, gjalle (no), ljome
• Russian: раздава́ться (ru) (razdavátʹsja)
• Sanskrit: स्तनति (stanati)
• Spanish: reverberar (es)

to have a lasting effect

• Catalan: reverberar (ca)
• Finnish: heijastua (fi)
• Italian: riverberare (it)

to repeatedly return

• Bulgarian: отеквам (bg) (otekvam)
• Catalan: reverberar (ca)
• Finnish: palailla (fi)
• French: résonner (fr)

to rebound or recoil

• Bulgarian: отразявам се (otrazjavam se)
• Finnish: kimmota (fi)

to shire or reflect

• Bulgarian: блестя (bg) (blestja), отразявам се от (otrazjavam se ot)
• Finnish: heijastua (fi)
• Spanish: reverberar (es)

obsolete: to shine or glow

• Catalan: reverberar (ca)
• Finnish: kiiltää (fi), hohtaa (fi)

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

• Greek: ^{(please verify)} αντηχώ (el) (antichó) (1)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} reverberar (es)

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “reverberate”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Adjective

reverberate (comparative more reverberate, superlative most reverberate)

1. reverberant
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:

     the reverberate hills

2. Driven back, as sound; reflected.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 9 p. 145:

     With the reverberate sound the spacious ayre did fill

Latin

Participle

reverberāte

1. vocative masculine singular of reverberātus

Spanish

Verb

reverberate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of reverberar combined with te