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Glite Dictionary
🌱 To spread slowly 💧 To filter through ☕ To brew coffee
to percolate

to percolate

1 5.0
Make coffee by letting hot water pass repeatedly through coffee grounds
  • verb
  • /ˈpɜrkəˌleɪt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : filtrar
  • She could smell bacon in the pan; the coffee pot was percolating.
  • percolating coffee

Examples

  • To enjoy a rich flavor, allow the coffee to percolate for several minutes before serving.

  • The aroma of the coffee began to fill the room as it percolated on the countertop.

  • Still dark, we'd huddle, jostling each other with our empty cups, waiting for the coffee to percolate.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The coffee percolating on the gas cooker next to his pot of beef stew no doubt would have tasted better if the steam rising off it mingled with steamy breath as he leaned in to sip.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Every morning, she would start her day by letting the coffee percolate in the pot while she prepared breakfast.

Surface Forms

percolate infinitive
percolated past
percolated past participle
percolating present participle
percolates third person singular

Morphology

percolate = percol + ate

The coffee sense is a specific application (using a percolator) of the basic 'pass through' idea, but the morphemic parts are Latin combining forms rather than obvious modern English pieces, so learners may only partially infer the meaning.

Etymology

Percolate comes from the Latin parts per- meaning 'through' and colare meaning 'to strain', so picture water moving 'through' coffee grounds in a percolator to pick up flavor. So to percolate coffee is to let water move 'through' the grounds again and again to make a richer drink.