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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
salivate
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Investors are salivating at the thought of a vast new market.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A lot of people on Wall Street are salivating at the prospect of having $ 150 billion a year rolling in.
▪ Clinton must salivate just thinking of how great it would be to be able to operate like that.
▪ Control of those dollars has the governor and lawmakers salivating.
▪ Dunn's mouth was open so long that it dried inside and he could not swallow or salivate.
▪ He says when it was brought in it was salivating and aggressive.
▪ Just the sort of thing that tends to get desperate politicians and bureaucrats salivating over the prospect of annexation.
▪ More people bring more power, which is why Republicans are salivating over the 2000 census data.
▪ When food is placed in your mouth, you can not choose not to salivate.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Salivate

Salivate \Sal"i*vate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Salivated; p. pr. & vb. n. Salivating.] [L. salivatus, p. p. of salivare to salivate. See Saliva.] To produce an abnormal flow of saliva in; to produce salivation or ptyalism in, as by the use of mercury. v. i.

  1. To produce saliva, esp. in excess.

  2. To drool.

  3. (Fig.) To anticipate keenly with pleasure, as though salivating at the expectation of a delicious meal. Used often with over.; as, salivate over the prospects of high profits from an enterprise.

    Note: Probably influenced by the experiments of Pavlov, who trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, by previously ringing the bell immediately prior to feeding them.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
salivate

1650s, "cause to produce saliva;" intransitive sense from 1680s, from Latin salivatus, past participle of salivare, from saliva (see saliva). Figurative use in reference to anticipation by 1965. Related: Salivated; salivating.

Wiktionary
salivate

vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To produce saliv

  1. 2 (context intransitive English) To show eager anticipation at the expectation of something.

WordNet
salivate
  1. v. produce saliva; "We salivated when he described the great meal"

  2. be envious, desirous, eager for, or extremely happy about something; "She was salivating over the raise she anticipated" [syn: drool]

Usage examples of "salivate".

No, that was definitely not a menu calculated to make Clyde Manship salivate.

Jeremy salivates in Pavlovian fashion as his plaice is laid on the paper for wrapping.

Nobody died, mind you, not even a salivating Lhasa apso or a parakeet.

I temporarily forget all about Renee Dalton-Sinclair, the Gotham Roses and the salivating paparazzi above us.

Men like the one salivating over the womanly assets of an overeager girl considered themselves to be above the law.

God, I was itching to do it, chomping at the bit, salivating like all of Pavlov's dogs rolled into one.

Blown out of the courtroom, catching heat from uor-citizen advocacy groups that had salivated over chance to make the Bognars a cause celebre, Wil- in desperation got in touch with certain admittedly operators about providing what might be called illegal recourse.

We've been trained to salivate when somebody shows us a Bombardier Skidoo with overdrive or a Zenith color TV with a motorized antenna.

Tyson took one himself and put it in his mouth, letting it dissolve slowly like a Communion wafer, his mouth salivating in response to the aromatic essence of vanilla and the richness of the cream and sugar.

He knew when his sense of smell returned because of the unexpected scent of hot bread fresh from the ovens that caused him to salivate, and then to swallow.

Classical conditioning- the ability of Pavlov's dogs to salivate when the bells rang-seems to be located in the limbic system.

I know all about Pavlov and his robots I care to know, namely, that every time a dog salivates a behaviorist psychologist has to ring a bell.

Craig did his best to calm Schwinn down, but Schwinn started to dismount and suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head and he began salivating and convulsing.

The creature salivated and its wings flickered into a frenzy, and Lublamai’s taste grew stronger and stronger until the thing’s monstrous tongue emerged and it moved forward, flicking Teafortwo effortlessly out of its way.

Henry had practically salivated over the Franklin Planner Helen described for him.