visit
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈvɪzɪt/
Verb

visit (visits, present participle visiting; past and past participle visited)

  1. (transitive) To habitually go to (someone in distress, sickness etc.) to comfort them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.) [from 13th c.]
  2. (transitive, intransitive) To go and meet (a person) as an act of friendliness or sociability. [from 14th c.]
  3. (transitive) Of God: to appear to (someone) to comfort, bless, or chastise or punish them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.) [from 13th c.]
    • Bible, Gospel of Luke i. 68
      [God] hath visited and redeemed his people.
    • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, Book of Ruth I.6:
      Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.
  4. (transitive, now, rare) To punish, to inflict harm upon (someone or something). [from 14th c.]
    • 1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 68:
      Her life was spared by the clemency of the emperor, but he visited the pomp and treasures of her palace.
  5. (transitive) Of a sickness, misfortune etc.: to afflict (someone). [from 14th c.]
    • 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough:
      There used to be a sharp contest as to where the effigy was to be made, for the people thought that the house from which it was carried forth would not be visited with death that year.
  6. (transitive) To inflict punishment, vengeance for (an offense) on or upon someone. [from 14th c.]
    • 2011, John Mullan, The Guardian, 2 Dec 2011:
      If this were an Ibsen play, we would be thinking of the sins of one generation being visited upon another, he said.
  7. (transitive) To go to (a shrine, temple etc.) for worship. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.) [from 14th c.]
  8. (transitive) To go to (a place) for pleasure, on an errand, etc. [from 15th c.]
Synonyms Translations Noun

visit (plural visits)

  1. A single act of visit#Verb|visiting.
  2. (medicine, insurance) A meeting with a doctor at their surgery or the doctor's at one's home.
Translations Translations Related terms


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