octavate
To sound one octave higher or lower. — To resonate or sound one octave higher or lower.
intransitive
The string, originally divided, will continue for some time to “octavate”.
To sound one octave higher or lower. — To span (at least) one octave in playing a musical instrument.
intransitive
Ability to ornament, octavate, play chords and do some improvising.
To sound one octave higher or lower. — To double the pitch of (a part of itself).
rare, transitive
A 12-string doubles the octaves of only the lower four strings…. A doubled, capoed guitar “octavates up” the top two strings.
To convert (the expression of a number) from denary to octal notation.
rare
To octavate the number one hundred the reasoning is as follows. The square of eight goes into one hundred once with remainder thirty-six. This remainder contains eight to the first power four times with remainder four. Hence to express one hundred to the base 8 we write the digits 144 which in somewhat longer form may be put as 100 = 1×8² + 4×8 + 4.
Where it comes from
First attested in 1922; formed as octav(e) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), in the musical sense after the French octavier.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry octavate (CC BY-SA 4.0).