I. ˈgāt, usu -ād.+V noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English gat, gate, yate, from Old English geat, gæt door, gate, opening; akin to Old Frisian jet hole, opening, Old Saxon & Old Norse gat, Greek chezein to defecate, Sanskrit hadati he defecates
1. : an opening for passage in an enclosing wall, fence, or barrier ; especially : such an opening with a movable frame or door for closing it
rushed down the path and through the gate
2. : a structure or part of a structure comprising a passageway with its collateral structures (as towers, approaches) especially when designed for defense
the gate of a walled city
a temple gate
3.
a. : the frame or door that closes a gate and is legally a part of the wall, fence, or other enclosure which it interrupts : a swinging or sliding barrier used to fill or close a gateway especially when made of a grating or open frame or forming a heavy or rough structure
b. : a movable barrier that can be placed (as by swinging or lowering) so as to block passage along a way (as at a railroad crossing)
4.
a. : a means of entrance or sometimes egress
I'll lock up all the gates of love — Shakespeare
determination is a gate to success
a small untended wound may become a gate for infection
b. : a pass or defile in mountains serving as a way of entrance into a country
c.
(1) : a usually numbered gate from a passenger terminal or pier to an embarkation area
(2) : such a gate together with the embarkation area (as a railroad loading platform) to which it gives access
d. : starting gate
e. : an opening between two flags through which a skier must pass in a slalom race
5. : something shaped or functioning like a gate: as
a. : a door, valve, or other device for controlling the passage of fluid or other material (as through a sluice, channel, or pipe)
a penstock gate for a waterwheel
a blast gate for a forge
an oil gate
b. : gating 1
c. : sash II 2
d. slang : a railroad track switch
e. : a signal (as a square-wave signal) that makes an electronic circuit operative for a chosen short period
f. : a device used in gating (sense 2)
g. or gateleg ˈ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ : a movable supporting bracket for a drop leaf consisting of a pair of legs separated and stabilizd by horizontal spreaders and arranged to fold against the frame of the piece of furniture when the leaf is dropped
6. : a hinged iron band secured to the topmast trestletrees to hold in place the heel of the topgallant mast
7.
a. : a metal part behind the cylinder in old-pattern revolvers that in loading is turned outward to expose the chambers
b. : the cover for the magazine opening in a breech-loading rifle
8.
a.
(1) : a channel in a foundry mold through which the molten metal flows into the cavity made by the pattern : ingate
(2) : the waste piece of metal cast in the opening of a gate
b. : the channel in each impression of a set of drop-forging dies that connects the flash with the sprue
9.
a. also gate money : the total admission receipts especially of a sports event
b. : the number of spectators admitted
10. slang : a state of rejection or separation (as from employment or intimate association) — used especially in the phrase give (one) the gate
after the quarrel she gave her boyfriend the gate
got the gate for being late too often
11. : the part of a camera, printer, or projector that includes the picture mask or aperture and the guiding tracks and surfaces which assist in positioning the film
12. : the slotted guide for the gearshift lever of a multiple-speed automobile transmission
13. : an electronic circuit having an output and two or more inputs so arranged that the output is energized only under certain conditions (as when both of two input wires receive pulses)
14. : gait III
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1. : to supply with a gate
2. Britain : campus
3. : to adjust (a loom) especially for actual weaving
4.
a. : to control by means of a gate (sense 5a)
b. : to make (an electronic device) operate in accordance with a gate
5.
a. : to supply (a foundry pattern) with extra parts to bring about the molding of the necessary gates
b. : to supply (a foundry mold) with gates
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from Old Norse gata road, path; akin to Old High German gazza road, street, Gothic gatwo street, and perhaps to Old English geat door, opening
1. archaic : a way for travel : street , path
gang down the gate to Luckie Gregson's — Sir Walter Scott
2. now dialect
a. : method , way , technique
b. : customary or habitual style
3. Scotland : journey , trip
4. chiefly Scotland : route of travel : direction
he's gone some other gate
5. chiefly Scotland : distance
a long gate from Heddon Rig
6. dialect England : pasturage especially on common lands
IV. noun
1. : an electrode in a field-effect transistor that modulates the current flowing through the transistor according to the voltage applied to the electrode — compare drain herein source herein
2. : a molecule or part of a molecule (as an amino acid sequence in a protein) that acts (as by a change in conformation) in response to a stimulus to permit or block passage through a cell membrane
V. transitive verb
: to control passage through a cell membrane by way of (a specific channel) by supplying a specific stimulus
a transmembrane ion channel gated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine
— see ligand-gated herein voltage-gated herein