gate

Etymology 1

From Middle English gate, gat, ȝate, ȝeat, from Old English ġeat (“gate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą (“hole, opening”). See also Old Norse gat, Swedish and Dutch gat, Low German Gaat, Gööt.

noun

1. A doorlike structure outside a house.
2. Doorway, opening, or passage in a fence or wall.
   At 7, he made his exit through the Ch‘ien-ch‘ing and the Lung-tsung gates, and thence, through the Yung-Hang Gate he entered the Tz‘u-ning Palace. 1870 June [1870 April], “The Peking Gazettes”, in Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, volume 3, number 1, Foochow: American Presbyterian Mission Press, →OCLC, page 12, column 1
3. Movable barrier.
   The gate in front of the railroad crossing went up after the train had passed.
4. Passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark.
5. A location which serves as a conduit for transport, migration, or trade.
   Lyons and Fisher's stations, who have spared nothing to ensure a success on this point, there is every reason to believe that the Northern Territory will soon be able to make a proper use of her geographical position, and become the gate of the East for all the Australian colonies. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 246
6. The amount of money made by selling tickets to a concert or a sports event.
7. (computing) A logical pathway made up of switches which turn on or off. Examples are and, or, nand, etc.
8. (electronics) The controlling terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
9. In a lock tumbler, the opening for the stump of the bolt to pass through or into.
10. (metalworking) The channel or opening through which metal is poured into the mould; the ingate.
11. The waste piece of metal cast in the opening; a sprue or sullage piece. Also written geat and git.
12. (cricket) The gap between a batsman's bat and pad.
    Singh was bowled through the gate, a very disappointing way for a world-class batsman to get out.
13. (cinematography) A mechanism, in a film camera and projector, that holds each frame momentarily stationary behind the aperture.
    After all, not using film has advantages other than cost: the curse of getting a hair in the gate (the rectangular opening at the front of a camera) is gone; the problem of getting dirt on the film swept away. 2023-03-16, John Boorman, “Today’s ‘films’ are nothing of the sort – so stop calling them that”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
14. (flow cytometry) A line that separates particle type-clusters on two-dimensional dot plots.
15. A tally mark consisting of four vertical bars crossed by a diagonal, representing a count of five.

verb

1. (transitive) To keep something inside by means of a closed gate.
2. (transitive) To punish, especially a child or teenager, by not allowing them to go out.
   “I’ve missed two lectures already,” remarked Maurice, who was breakfasting in his pyjamas. “Cut them all — he’ll only gate you.” 1971, E. M. Forster, chapter 13, in Maurice, Penguin, published 1972, page 72
   Dons could ring the front bell and be admitted after that hour. But students who returned after midnight or who stayed out all night were fined heavily or “gated” – that is, forbidden to leave college for several days. 2010, Thomas J. Schaeper, Kathleen Schaeper, “Yanks and Brits”, in Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite, New York, NY: Berghahn Books, page 52
3. (transitive, biochemistry) To open a closed ion channel.
4. (transitive) To furnish with a gate.
5. (transitive) To turn (an image intensifier) on and off selectively as needed, or to avoid damage from excessive light exposure. See autogating.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old Norse gata, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ. Cognate with Danish gade, Swedish gata, German Gasse (“lane”). Doublet of gait.

noun

1. (now Scotland, Northern England) A way, path.
   "Stand out o' my gate, wife, for, d'ye see, I am rather in a haste, Jean Linton." 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet
2. (obsolete) A journey.
3. (Scotland, Northern England) A street; now used especially as a combining form to make the name of a street e.g. "Briggate" (a common street name in the north of England meaning "Bridge Street") or Kirkgate meaning "Church Street".
4. (Britain, Scotland, dialect, archaic) Manner; gait.