WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
cate
(kāt),USA pronunciation n. Usually, cates. [Archaic.]
- a choice food;
delicacy;
dainty.
- Vulgar Latin *accaptāre, equivalent. to Latin ac- ac- + captāre to seek out; see catch
- Old North French, derivative of acater to buy
- back formation from late Middle English cates, aphetic variant of Middle English acates things bought, plural of acat buying 1425–75
'cate' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Bernoulli's lemniscate
- Blanchett
- cater
- colocate
- detoxification
- detoxify
- interlocate
- multifurcate
- multisaccate
- multisulcate
- placate
- prelocate
- prevacate
- revacate
- subfalcate
- subtruncate
- unfurcate