■ verb
1》 (usu. it ~s ) come to be known; prove to be so.
2》 happen.
3》 Botany (of a plant or leaf) give off water vapour through the stomata.
Derivatives
transpiration noun
Origin
ME: from Fr. ~r or med. L. transpirare , from L. trans- 'through' + spirare 'breathe'.
Usage
The standard sense of ~ is ‘come to be known’ ( it ~d that he had bought a house ). From this, a looser sense developed in US English in the late 18th century, meaning ‘happen’ ( I'm going to find out exactly what ~d ). This newer sense is very common, but is sometimes criticized for being an unnecessarily long word used where occur and happen would do just as well.