Meaning of gesture in English

gesture

noun [ C ]

/ˈdʒes.tʃər/ us

/ˈdʒes.tʃɚ/

gesture noun [C] (MOVEMENT)

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a movement of the hands, arms, or head, etc. to express an idea or feeling:

gesture of The prisoner raised his fist in a gesture of defiance as he was led out of the courtroom.

make a gesture She made a rude gesture at the other driver.

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"All this is mine, " she said with a sweeping arm gesture.
Since they spoke only Swahili, we used signs and gestures to make ourselves understood.
The taxi driver made a rude gesture as he overtook us.
He threw his hands up in a gesture of despair.
When she ruffled the boy's hair, it was meant as a playful gesture - but he was furious.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Gestures & gesturing

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gesture noun [C] (SYMBOLIC ACT)

an action that expresses your feelings or intentions, although it might have little practical effect:

gesture of The government donated £500,000 as a gesture of goodwill.

Eating boiled potatoes instead of chips was his only gesture towards healthy eating.

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Releasing the hostages has been seen as a goodwill gesture.
Five hundred troops were sent in, more as a gesture of strength than as a real threat.
The demonstration is a pointless gesture of defiance against the government.
What better finale to her career than this extravagant gesture?
The press release is a face-saving gesture.

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Gestures & gesturing

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gesture

verb [ I ]

/ˈdʒes.tʃər/ us

/ˈdʒes.tʃɚ/

to use a gesture to express or emphasize something:

When he asked where the children were, she gestured vaguely in the direction of the beach.

gesture for someone to do something He made no answer but walked on, gesturing for me to follow.

Synonyms

gesticulate formal

motion

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Gestures & gesturing

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(Definition of gesture from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

gesture | American Dictionary

gesture

noun [ C ]

/ˈdʒes·tʃər/

gesture noun [C] (MOVEMENT)

Add to word list Add to word list

a movement of the body, hands, arms, or head to express an idea or feeling:

He made a rude gesture to the crowd after his tennis match.

gesture noun [C] (SYMBOLIC ACT)

an action that expresses your feelings or intentions, although it might have little practical effect:

Her warm thank-you note was a nice gesture.

gesture

verb [ I ] us

/ˈdʒes·tʃər/

When I asked where the children were, she gestured toward the beach.

(Definition of gesture from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of gesture

gesture

Most likely, phonological plans and articulatory gestures are wired in primary motor and premotor cortices in the inferior frontal lobe.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The oboe, on the other hand, offers very little for the eye, though some players attempt to compensate for this with grand gestures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Because they cannot claim real property on their findings, they may attach their names to them as a gesture of symbolic ownership for their work.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They were visible physical gestures (illustrated, for example, by keyboard fingering-methods).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Additionally, in related utterances, the adults spoke directly to the child as evidenced by their chosen words, eye gaze, body orientation, and gestures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

For this reason, other responses that infants provided - gestures and utterances - provided important information regarding their genuine level of sophistication in absent reference comprehension.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Pointing gestures and responses, yes\no gestures and responses, imitations, unintelligible utterances, and utterances that included a participant that was not visible were excluded.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is evidence to suggest that forms transcribed as simultaneous or sequentially ordered oral and laryngeal gestures may in fact represent unreleased plosive forms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We now need to reintegrate the gesture information that we removed in the projection step before recognition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Parents also directed children's attention by combining verbal communication with gestures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the distribution of gesture+speech combinations differed for caregiver and child.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The texts perpetually gesture towards a moment of fulfilment that remains deferred, when their latent significance would unfurl itself in a millennial revelation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Most studies of language acquisition have relied on tape-recordings but these don't contain information about gestures or gaze.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She acknowledges her inferior position by gesture, movement and posture, knowing that her deference and submissiveness are her best defences at the early stages.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Often it has been simply a gesture of tact towards the feelings, however bigoted, of others, whether friends, family or colleagues.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with gesture

gesture

These are words often used in combination with gesture.

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deictic gesture

First, a command which requires an active deictic gesture to provide the referent.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

dramatic gesture

Here is only one example, notable for combining appropriation of the opponents' dramatic gesture, use of an overlay, and the forgetting, at the climactic moment, of a telegraph wire.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

empty gesture

Policy without financial resources is just an empty gesture.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

See all collocations with gesture

What is the pronunciation of gesture?

C1,C1,C2

Translations of gesture

in Chinese (Traditional)

動作, 手勢, 姿勢…

Meaning of gesture in English

gesture noun [C] (MOVEMENT)

gesture noun [C] (SYMBOLIC ACT)

gesture | American Dictionary

gesture noun [C] (MOVEMENT)

gesture noun [C] (SYMBOLIC ACT)

gesture

Examples of gesture

Collocations with gesture

gesture

Translations of gesture

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