MEANING
1. To make something known through an indirect or restrained hint.
2. Closely familiar through personal knowledge, affection, or sustained contact.
3. Belonging to a person’s private life or most personal experiences, including sexual matters where context specifies them.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- intimate a possibility
- intimate that
On the page
He intimated that the inquiry might reach the family without naming anyone.
Her pause intimated an objection she would not yet put into words.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- intimate
- Past tense
- intimated
- Past participle
- intimated
- Present participle
- intimating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- intimate
- Present continuous
- am/is/are intimating
- Present perfect
- have/has intimated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been intimating
- Past
- intimated
- Past continuous
- was/were intimating
- Past perfect
- had intimated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been intimating
- Future
- will intimate
- Future continuous
- will be intimating
- Future perfect
- will have intimated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been intimating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: intimate; intimates; intimated; intimated; intimating Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: intimates.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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