# gate

Pronunciation: say "GAYT" /ɡeɪt/

## Noun

1. A movable barrier, usually hinged, that closes an opening in a fence, wall, or hedge.
   - Simple: A door-like barrier in a fence or wall that opens and closes.
   - _She closed the garden gate behind her so the dog couldn't get out._
   - _Please shut the gate after you cross the field._
2. An opening or passage that gives access through a fence or wall.
   - Simple: An opening or passage in a fence or wall that people walk through.
   - _A narrow gate in the stone wall led to the orchard._
   - _Visitors enter the park through a wide gate in the iron fence._
3. A passageway in an air terminal where passengers board or leave an aircraft.
   - Simple: The place in an airport where you get on or off a plane.
   - _Passengers lined up at the gate as boarding began._
   - _The flight was delayed, so we sat near the gate for hours._
6. A location that serves as a channel for transport, migration, or trade.
   - Simple: A place that acts as a main way in or out for travel or trade.
   - _For centuries, the narrow pass was the main gate between east and west._
   - _Historically, the harbor was the gate through which most goods entered the kingdom._
7. The total money earned from selling tickets to a concert or sports event.
   - Simple: The total money taken from ticket sales at a concert or game.
   - _The promoter counted the gate after the final whistle._
   - _Ticket prices rose, but the gate still fell short of expectations._
8. A logic element built from switches that turns its output on or off according to a rule such as AND, OR, or NAND.
   - Simple: A part in a computer circuit that turns a signal on or off using simple logic.
   - _A NAND gate outputs zero only when both of its inputs are high._
   - _Engineers combined thousands of gates to build the processor._
9. The controlling terminal of a field-effect transistor, the one whose voltage regulates current flow between the other two terminals.
   - Simple: The part of a transistor that controls whether current can flow through it.
   - _Applying voltage to the gate opens a conducting channel in the transistor._
   - _The gate draws almost no current because it is insulated from the channel._
13. A location where illegal drugs are bought and sold. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A place where people secretly buy and sell illegal drugs.
   - _He got arrested for running a drug gate out of his cousin's apartment._
   - _Word spread that the old corner store had turned into a gate, with buyers coming and going all night._
14. In northern England and Scotland, a street, way, or path; now mainly in street names such as Kirkgate. *(dialectal, Northern England, Scotland)*
   - Simple: In northern England and Scotland, an old word for a street or path.
15. A symbol for five formed by drawing a slanting line through four upright strokes.
   - Simple: A counting mark made of four straight lines with one line crossing them, standing for five.
   - _The tally sheet was covered in neat gates, each marking five animals._
   - _He added a diagonal stroke to complete the gate and start a new group._
16. In cricket, the gap between a batsman's bat and pad, through which a ball may pass to hit the wicket.
   - Simple: In cricket, the gap between a batter's bat and leg pad.
   - _The delivery sneaked through the gate and rattled the stumps._
   - _Defending forward, he closed the gate to keep the ball out._

## Verb

4. To fit or provide something with a gate.
   - Simple: To put a gate on something such as a fence or road.
   - _Developers gated the community to control who could enter._
   - _The council voted to gate the alley behind the shops._
5. To selectively control or restrict access to something.
   - Simple: To control or limit who can get into or use something.
   - _The platform gates premium content behind a subscription._
   - _Administrators gate access to sensitive files for security._
11. To confine something within an enclosure by shutting its gate.
   - Simple: To keep something or someone in by closing a gate.
   - _Ranchers gate the cattle in the lower field overnight._
   - _She gated the horses before the storm arrived._
12. To punish a student, especially at a boarding school or college, by forbidding them to leave the grounds for a period.
   - Simple: To punish a student by not letting them leave the school grounds for a time.
   - _The school gated the students who broke curfew._
   - _At her boarding school, the housemistress would gate anyone caught out after curfew._
10. To control the opening and closing of an ion channel, and so regulate the flow of ions across a membrane.
   - Simple: To open and close a tiny channel in a cell, controlling which charged particles flow through.
   - _Voltage changes gate the sodium channel, triggering the nerve impulse._
   - _Specific ligands gate these receptors to admit calcium ions._

## Noun

17. A man; a male person, in dated jive slang. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A man or fellow.
   - _"Take it away, gate!" the drummer shouted to the sax player._
   - _The old trumpet player still called his bandmates "gate," just as he had in the 1940s._
18. A journey; a trip made from one place to another. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A journey or trip from one place to another.

## Other meanings

- (noun) An individual theme park counted as one unit within a larger resort that contains multiple parks.
- (noun) A mechanism in a film camera or projector that holds each frame briefly still behind the aperture.
- (noun) In a lock tumbler, the opening through which the stump of the bolt passes or into which it seats.
- (noun) In metal casting, the channel through which molten metal is poured into a mold, or the waste metal that hardens in it.
- (noun) In flow cytometry, a boundary line that separates clusters of particle types on a two-dimensional dot plot.
- (verb) To switch an image intensifier on and off selectively, as needed or to prevent damage from excessive light.
- (noun) In mining, a tunnel or roadway serving the coal face.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–13, 15–17** — Proto-Germanic *gatą ("hole, opening") led to Proto-West Germanic *gat and then Old English 'ġeat' ("gate"), which became Middle English 'gate'. Old Norse 'gat', Swedish and Dutch 'gat', and Low German 'Gaat' are related.
**Meanings 14, 18** — Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ gave Old Norse 'gata', which English borrowed. Its cognates are Danish 'gade', Swedish 'gata', and German 'Gasse' ("lane"), and 'gait' is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/gate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).