How to Use percolate in a Sentence

percolate

verb
  • Coffee was percolating on the stove.
  • Sunlight percolated down through the trees.
  • There is nothing like percolating coffee over an open campfire.
  • Rumors percolated throughout the town.
  • That slow drip is what helps the water percolate deep to the roots.
    — Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 July 2023
  • The lot must be large enough to place a septic field and the soil must percolate.
    — Jeff Layton, The Seattle Times, 29 Mar. 2019
  • That is a thought percolating through the minds of people who run the city.
    — Josh Ocampo, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2023
  • The same type of feeling seems to be percolating around the big tech names.
    — Lu Wang, Bloomberg.com, 12 May 2017
  • The rare air of four rings caused a broader questions to percolate.
    — Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Feb. 2024
  • Nothing came of it then but the idea percolated in the lawyers’ minds.
    — Justin Wingerter, Denver Post, 26 Sep. 2025
  • But yes, there are a lot of ideas percolating in the background.
    — Rick Porter, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 June 2023
  • The fields tilt slightly to move water faster and percolate less of it below the roots.
    — Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 20 Nov. 2022
  • There may be an isolated storm in the percolating heat, but don’t bet on it.
    — Ian Livingston, Washington Post, 21 June 2024
  • The Other was one of many, but that’s the one that sort of percolated for me.
    — Benjamin Hart, Daily Intelligencer, 17 May 2018
  • There isn't much ground for the water to percolate since the area is mostly concrete.
    — Nour Rahal, Detroit Free Press, 1 July 2021
  • The record run halted late last week as fears about the virus percolated through markets.
    — Gunjan Banerji, WSJ, 27 Jan. 2020
  • The same themes that have percolated throughout those deals are present in this latest group.
    — Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 27 Nov. 2025
  • And while this trend has been percolating, the details around it remain murky.
    — Korin Miller, SELF, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Out in the mist, unmoored but immersed, an idea started to percolate.
    — Grace Edquist, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2025
  • The tension between the hosts percolated over the last few months.
    — Chad Finn, BostonGlobe.com, 16 May 2023
  • Romance with a boss might be percolating.
    — Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 10 Apr. 2026
  • The restaurant is a result of more than five years of percolating about each detail.
    — Ann Maloney, nola.com, 18 June 2019
  • The idea began to percolate over the past two games as Denver struggled to get off the field.
    — Troy Renck, Denver Post, 6 Dec. 2025
  • This is the message that has been percolating through segments of the online right.
    — Ali Breland, The Atlantic, 29 Oct. 2024
  • There’s a lot of big stuff percolating right now in the world of Mac Saturn.
    — Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 21 Jan. 2024
  • These are important themes, emotions, and ideas that percolate in the head of every kid right now.
    — Joe Wituschek, BGR, 9 Dec. 2022
  • The moving-to-Europe idea had been percolating for a while by then.
    — Marian Schembari, Good Housekeeping, 18 Feb. 2016
  • Much of the lake bed sits on a thick layer of clay that blocks water on the surface from percolating down to the aquifer.
    — Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2024
  • Those are the sorts of dreams that have been percolating around Miami.
    — Christine Armario, Washington Post, 27 July 2024
  • These other kinds percolate through the bedrock to shallower depths and hence are cooler.
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 9 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'percolate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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