hibernate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   sleep during winter

   Bears must eat a lot of food before they hibernate in their caves

2. 2
   verb

   To spend the winter in a dormant or inactive state of minimal activity, low body temperature, slow breathing and heart rate, and low metabolic rate; to go through a winter sleep.

   Hedgehogs and bears are two of the many mammals that hibernate in winter.

3. 3
   verb

   To enter a standby state which conserves power without losing the contents of memory.

   Your computer hibernates after it has been idle for the specified amount of time.

4. 4
   verb

   be in an inactive or dormant state

5. 5
   verb

   To live in seclusion.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin hībernātus, perfect passive participle of hībernō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from hībernus (“wintry”).