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Glite Dictionary
🔁 To return ↔️ To move back-and-forth
to reciprocate

to reciprocate

1 7.4
Move back and forth in a straight line, like a piston in an engine
  • verb
  • /rɪˈsɪprəˌkeɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : moverse de vaivén
  • A reciprocating superconducting magnet alternately magnetizes one AMR bed, then the other.
  • reciprocating compressor
  • reciprocating motion
  • reciprocating engines

So I have basically I'm a person who's never met a reciprocating saw they didn't like.

Examples

  • Hartwick's entire professional career, from 1948 through 1995, was devoted to the technology of reciprocating compressors.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The reciprocating motion of the piston was used primarily to pump water from mines.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Its light weight, for example, could significantly reduce the reciprocating mass of an engine.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Watt also developed the slider-crank mechanism to convert reciprocating motion to rotary motion.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The engine deck was hot, the thunderous pounding of the twin reciprocating cylinders working their steady rhythm.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The piston moved in a reciprocate motion, driving the engine efficiently.

  • In the engine, each reciprocate movement of the cylinder contributes to its power output.

  • The mechanism used a reciprocate motion to efficiently raise and lower the cargo.

Synonyms

to move back and forth
vsto reciprocate
10 2.8

Go first one way and then the other repeatedly

applies mainly to machine parts and also means to cause that motion

Antonyms

to stay in place
10 1.5

Not move from a place

How Vigorous

to pump
83 2.3
to reciprocate
  • Specialized
1 7.4
to vibrate
91 2.8
to wiggle
89 1.0

Surface Forms

reciprocate infinitive
reciprocated past
reciprocated past participle
reciprocating present participle
reciprocates third person singular

Morphology

reciprocate = reciprocal (semi-transparent) = reciproc + ate

The mechanical sense 'move back and forth' is a specialized extension of the idea of 'returning' or 'alternating' in 'reciprocal' and may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

The word reciprocate comes from the Latin root reciproc-, which means 'back and forth' or 'return'. So when a part or machine reciprocates, it moves 'back and forth' in a straight line, like a piston or saw blade.