translate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   change from one form or medium into another

   Braque translated collage into oil

2. 2
   verb

   restate (words) from one language into another language

   I have to translate when my in-laws from Austria visit the U.S.

3. 3
   verb

   express, as in simple and less technical language

   Can you translate the instructions in this manual for a layman?

4. 4
   verb

   be translatable, or be translatable in a certain way

   poetry often does not translate

5. 5
   verb

   be equivalent in effect

   the growth in income translates into greater purchasing power

6. 6
   verb

   Senses relating to the change of information, etc., from one form to another.

   Hans translated my novel into Welsh.

7. 7
   verb

   To entrance (“place in a trance”), to cause to lose recollection or sense.

   William was translated by the blow to the head he received, being unable to speak for the next few minutes.

8. 8
   verb

   To repair (used shoes, boots or other clothing) for resale.

   Boots and Shoes are not to be had, I am told, in sufficient quantity for the demand from the slop-shops, the "translators," and the second-hand dealers. Great quantities of second-hand boots and shoes are sent to Ireland to be "translated" there.

Etymology

From Middle English translaten (“to transport, translate, transform”), from Anglo-Norman translater, from Latin trānslātus, perfect passive participle of trānsferō (“to transport, carry across, translate”). See also -ate (verb-forming suffix). Distant doublet of transfer, see collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others. In this sense, displaced Old English wendan (“to translate,” also the word for “to turn” and “to change”).