gate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a movable barrier in a fence or wall
  2. noun a computer circuit with several inputs but only one output that can be activated by particular combinations of inputs
    logic gate.
  3. noun total admission receipts at a sports event
  4. noun passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark
  5. verb supply with a gate
    • The house was gated
  6. verb control with a valve or other device that functions like a gate
  7. verb restrict (school boys') movement to the dormitory or campus as a means of punishment

WordNet

Gate noun
Etymology
OE. et, eat, giat, gate, door, AS. geat, gat, gate, door; akin to OS., D., & Icel. gat opening, hole, and perh. to E. gate a way, gait, and get, v. Cf. Gate a way in the wall, 3d Get.
Definitions
  1. A large door or passageway in the wall of a city, of an inclosed field or place, or of a grand edifice, etc.; also, the movable structure of timber, metal, etc., by which the passage can be closed.
  2. An opening for passage in any inclosing wall, fence, or barrier; or the suspended framework which closes or opens a passage. Also, figuratively, a means or way of entrance or of exit.
    Knowest thou the way to Dover? Both stile and gate, horse way and footpath. Shak.
    Opening a gate for a long war. Knolles.
  3. A door, valve, or other device, for stopping the passage of water through a dam, lock, pipe, etc.
  4. (Script.) The places which command the entrances or access; hence, place of vantage; power; might.
    The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt. xvi. 18.
  5. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass through or into.
  6. (Founding) (a) The channel or opening through which metal is poured into the mold; the ingate. (b) The waste piece of metal cast in the opening; a sprue or sullage piece. Written also geat and git.
Gate transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To supply with a gate.
  2. (Eng. Univ.) To punish by requiring to be within the gates at an earlier hour than usual.
Gate noun
Etymology
Icel. gata; akin to SW. gata street, lane, Dan. gade, Goth. gatwö, G. gasse. Cf. Gate a door, Gait.
Definitions
  1. A way; a path; a road; a street (as in Highgate). O. Eng. & Scot.
    I was going to be an honest man; but the devil has this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate. Sir W. Scott.
  2. Manner; gait. O. Eng. & Scot.

Webster 1913