punc·tu·ate

(pŭngk′cho͞o-āt′)

v. punc·tu·at·ed, punc·tu·at·ing, punc·tu·ates

v.tr.

1. To provide (a text) with punctuation marks.

2. To occur or interrupt periodically: "lectures punctuated by questions and discussions" (Gilbert Highet)."[There is] a great emptiness in America's West punctuated by Air Force bases" (Alfred Kazin).

3. To stress or emphasize.

v.intr.

To use punctuation.

[Medieval Latin pūnctuāre, pūnctuāt-, from Latin pūnctum, point, from neuter past participle of pungere, to prick; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.]

punc′tu·a′tive adj.

punc′tu·a′tor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Mentioned in

punctator

References in periodicals archive

Only one major manuscript in Defoe's hand exists today, for The Compleat English Gentlemen, and most scholars have taken this as strong evidence that he was at best a haphazard punctuator and an author rather indifferent to the niceties of the compositor's trade.

Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission

Interjections: These are sounds, words or phrases occurring as a discourse punctuator and perhaps the most obvious candidate for code-switching in fictional dialogue e.g.

Between a rock and a hard place: code-switching and hybridisation in Kevin MacNeil's The Callanish Stoned

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