lubricate
verb
Simple meaning
Make slippery or smooth through the application of a lubricant.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
loobrihkaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlubɹɪkeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make slippery or smooth through the application of a lubricant
To make slippery or smooth (normally to minimize friction) by applying a lubricant.
humorous
To cause someone to become drunk, especially to make them more sociable or talkative.
Apply a lubricant to
Word at a Glance
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make slippery or smooth through the application of a lubricant
Used this way, lubricate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- lube , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Smeared with oil or grease to reduce friction.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A substance capable of reducing friction by making surfaces smooth or slippery.
A thick fatty oil (especially one used to lubricate machinery).
Mechanical system of lubricating internal combustion engines in which a pump forces oil into the engine bearings.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- lubricationnoun
- lubricantnoun
- dryverb
- valvenoun
- oilnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: make slippery
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