militate
Formsmilitates, militating, militated
Often confused with mitigate
- 1To work as a force or influence toward a particular result, or against it.
Several factors militate against a quick settlement, including the sheer number of claims.
The building's age militated against turning it into apartments.
Note
A verb that works through its preposition: a circumstance militates against an outcome, or in favor of it. Its subject is usually a fact or a situation rather than a person, such as frequent stops that militated against keeping express engines in service. It is easily confused with mitigate, which means to soften or lessen; when the sentence needs against, militate is nearly always the word.
- 2To serve as a soldier or take part in warfare.
This..moues many Italian Caualiers to militate in the warres of Holland.
1625, Nathanael Brent, Free Schoole of WarreNote
The soldiering sense is the one closest to Latin mīlitō, and English has had the verb since 1598. It has long been obsolete: Nathanael Brent, in 1625, could write of Italian cavaliers moved to militate in the wars of Holland, but today one serves or fights. The verb survives only in the weighing for or against, where circumstances do the campaigning.
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Origin
First attested in 1598; borrowed from Latin mīlitātus, the perfect passive participle of mīlitō, with the verb suffix -ate. Its meaning follows its French cognate militer.