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more about hibernate
hibernate |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Hibernate \Hi"ber*nate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Hibernated}; p. pr & vb n. {Hibernating}.] [L. hibernare, hibernatum fr hibernu? wintry. See {Hibernal}.] To winter; to pass the season of winter in close quarters, in a torpid or lethargic state, as certain mammals, reptiles, and insects. Inclination would lead me to hibernate, during half the year, in this uncomfortable climate of Great Britain. --Southey. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: hibernate v : sleep during winter, as of certain animals, such as bears [syn: {hole up}] [ant: {estivate}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: HIBERNATE, v.i. To pass the winter season in domestic seclusion. There have been many singular popular notions about the hibernation of various animals. Many believe that the bear hibernates during the whole winter and subsists by mechanically sucking its paws. It is admitted that it comes out of its retirement in the spring so lean that it had to try twice before it can cast a shadow. Three or four centuries ago, in England, no fact was better attested than that swallows passed the winter months in the mud at the bottom of their brooks, clinging together in globular masses. They have apparently been compelled to give up the custom and account of the foulness of the brooks. Sotus Ecobius discovered in Central Asia a whole nation of people who hibernate. By some investigators, the fasting of Lent is supposed to have been originally a modified form of hibernation, to which the Church gave a religious significance; but this view was strenuously opposed by that eminent authority, Bishop Kip, who did not wish any honors denied to the memory of the Founder of his family.
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