interpolate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb estimate the value of
    extrapolate.
  2. verb insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby
    alter; falsify.

WordNet

In*ter"po*late transitive verb
Etymology
L. interpolatus, p. p. of interpolare to form anew, to interpolate, fr. interpolus, interpolis, falsified, vamped up, polished up; inter between + polire to polish. See Polish, v. t.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Interpolated ; present participle & verbal noun Interpolating
Definitions
  1. To renew; to carry on with intermission. Obs.
    Motion . . . partly continued and unintermitted, . . . partly interpolated and interrupted. Sir M. Hale.
  2. To alter or corrupt by the insertion of new or foreign matter; especially, to change, as a book or text, by the insertion of matter that is new, or foreign to the purpose of the author.
    How strangely Ignatius is mangled and interpolated, you may see by the vast difference of all copies and editions. Bp. Barlow.
    The Athenians were put in possession of Salamis by another law, which was cited by Solon, or, as some think, interpolated by him for that purpose. Pope.
  3. (Math.) To fill up intermediate terms of, as of a series, according to the law of the series; to introduce, as a number or quantity, in a partial series, according to the law of that part of the series.

Webster 1913