gravitate
/ˈɡravɪteɪt
/verb [no object, with adverbial]
1Move towards or be attracted to a person or thing: young western Europeans will gravitate to Berlin...
- My thoughts instantly gravitated towards him.
- They're found in all of the oceans of the world, but they gravitate towards the waters of the Arctics, where the food is plentiful and humans are rare.
- The importance of Paris as an artistic centre, particularly in the book trade, meant that many foreign artists gravitated towards the French capital, attracted by the wealth of patrons.
2 Physics Move, or tend to move, towards a centre of gravity or other attractive force: the electron does not gravitate towards the nucleus...
- Similarly, instead of being thrown off into space by their movement round the sun, the planets would gravitate towards the centre of their whirlpool.
- Four blocks gravitate simultaneously towards the centre of the piece when a lever on the side is moved.
- The moon gravitates towards the earth, and by the force of gravity is continually drawn off from a rectilinear motion, and retained in its orbit.
Synonyms
move, head, be pulled, drift;
tend, have a tendency, lean, incline, veer;
be drawn to, be attracted to
2.1 archaic Descend or sink by the force of gravity: water does not gravitate on any part of itself beneath it...
- We descend directly to the stern at 30m and gravitate immediately to the impressive 3m propeller.
- Water gravitates toward the sea; vapor rises to the sky.
- Fortunes gravitate to those whose minds have been prepared to attract them just as surely as water gravitates to the ocean.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from modern Latin gravitat-, from the verb gravitare, from Latin gravitas 'weight'.