Meaning & use

hibernate

verb·Academic

To spend the winter in a deep, inactive sleep, as some animals do to conserve energy.

See it in a sentence

Bears hibernate through the coldest months, living off stored body fat.

The old laptop seemed to hibernate for days without anyone touching it.

A note on using this word

In computing, "hibernate" describes a power-saving mode that saves the current state before shutting down.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Another way to use it

2. verb

To enter a computer power-saving mode that saves the current state to disk before shutting down.

Her laptop began to hibernate automatically after ten minutes of inactivity.

Make it your own

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