gesticulate
/dʒɛˈstɪkjʊleɪt
/verb [no object]
Use gestures, especially dramatic ones, instead of speaking or to emphasize one’s words: they were shouting and gesticulating frantically at drivers who did not slow down...
- He had reportedly run at her, shouting and gesticulating wildly and waving his hand ‘only inches from her face’.
- In public places, Kanaks adopt a discreet and subdued attitude, avoiding excessive speaking or gesticulating, which are considered rude.
- Families spread out elaborate picnics and play blind man's buff; everywhere there are people arguing, gesticulating and shouting over each other.
Synonyms
gesture, make gestures, signal, make signals, sign, motion, wave
Derivatives
gesticulative
- The athlete uses an assistant to move the ramp into position, giving only verbal or gesticulative cues on where to move the ramp.
- It focuses in on the two essentials - Mr. Caesar's face and the moving sandwich in the gesticulative hand of the speaker.
- Without using words, participants are invited to engage in gesticulative dialogue.
gesticulator
/ noun ...- There also arose a gesticulator whose purpose was to illustrate, with pantomimic gestures, what the actor-tragedian was singing.
- When the aerobic gesturing stops, the gesticulators storm toward the garage, stomping past the sleepy lavender patch, out of view.
- He describes the fascinating journey along the evolutionary path that ‘converted us from wild gesticulators to smooth talkers.’
gesticulatory
/ adjective ...- Gesticulatory and concerned with his ‘vision’, he is constantly battling with his producer, scoffing at one point, ‘Apparently we can't construct the truth!’
- You get this flurry of gesticulatory activity, followed by a raising of the eyebrows and a widening of the eyes as the orator pauses.
- Therefore, Woolf is engagingly and illustratively gesticulatory.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin gesticulat- 'gesticulated', from the verb gesticulari, from gesticulus, diminutive of gestus 'action'.