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rotate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed from Latin rotātus, perfect passive participle of rotō (“revolve”), from rota (“wheel”).

rotate (third-person singular simple present rotates, present participle rotating, simple past and past participle rotated)

  1. (intransitive) To spin, turn, or revolve.

    He rotated in his chair to face me.

    The earth rotates.

  2. (intransitive) To advance through a sequence; to take turns.

    The nurses' shifts rotate each week.

  3. (intransitive, of aircraft) To lift the nose during takeoff, just prior to liftoff.

    The aircraft rotates at sixty knots.

  4. (transitive) To spin, turn, or revolve something.

    Rotate the dial to the left.

  5. (transitive) To advance something through a sequence; to allocate or deploy in turns.

    • 1975, “Architectural Digest”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 32, page 112:

      I've always admired the Japanese point of view that holds it best not to have a great number of objects around at one time but to rotate possessions — and display them with great simplicity.

  6. (transitive) To replace older materials or to place older materials in front of newer ones so that older ones get used first.

    The supermarket rotates the stock daily so that old foods don't sit around.

  7. (transitive) To grow or plant (crops) in a certain order.

"Rotate about" implies that the object is spinning in place (i.e. the defined axis passes through through some internal point of the object), while "rotate around" implies that the object is orbiting an external point.

to spin, turn, or revolve

to spin, turn, or revolve something

to advance something through a sequence

to replace older materials or to place older materials in front of newer ones

to change which tire is on each corner of the car, so that they wear evenly

Translations to be checked

rotate (not comparable)

  1. Having the parts spreading out like a wheel; wheel-shaped.

    a rotate spicule or scale; a rotate corolla

wheel-shaped

rotate

  1. inflection of rotare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

rotate f pl

  1. feminine plural of rotato

rotāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of rotō

rotate

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