Etymology The adjective is first attested in the second part of the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English, the verb in 1538, the noun in 1921; inherited from Middle English saturat(e) (“satiated, satisfied”), borrowed from Latin saturātus, perfect passive participle of saturō (“to fill, satisfy, quench”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from satur (“full”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).
1
To cause to become completely permeated with, or soaked (especially with a liquid).
Rain saturated their clothes.
After walking home in the driving rain, his clothes were saturated.
2 more examples
Suppose, on the contrary, that a piece of charcoal saturated with hydrogen gas is put into a receiver filled with carbonic acid gas, […]1815, Annals of Philosophy, volume 6, page 332:
Innumerable flocks and herds covered that vast expanse of emerald meadow, saturated with the moisture of the Atlantic.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences To satisfy the affinity of; to cause a substance to become inert by chemical combination with all that it can hold.
One can saturate phosphorus with chlorine.
4
Engineering, Natural sciences, Optics, Physical sciences, Physics To render pure, or of a colour free from white light.
saturate
noun
UK /ˈsatjʊɹət/ · CA, US /ˈsæt͡ʃəɹət/
Etymology The adjective is first attested in the second part of the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English, the verb in 1538, the noun in 1921; inherited from Middle English saturat(e) (“satiated, satisfied”), borrowed from Latin saturātus, perfect passive participle of saturō (“to fill, satisfy, quench”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from satur (“full”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).
1
Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Something saturated, especially a saturated fat.
Through formation of a double bond, stearic acid (18:0), a saturate, is converted to acid (18:1), a monounsaturate.1999, Tom Brody, Nutritional Biochemistry, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 363:
We estimate from Table 4 that the average deuterium content in the saturate is approximately 1.1 when palladium is the catalyst, 1.6 when platinum is the catalyst, and 1.7 when rhodium is the catalyst. If there were only deuterium on the surface, the saturate would average 2 deuteriums.1973, Paul Nels Rylander, Fourth Conference on Catalytic Hydrogenation and Analogous Pressure Reactions:
saturate
adj
Etymology The adjective is first attested in the second part of the 15ᵗʰ century, in Middle English, the verb in 1538, the noun in 1921; inherited from Middle English saturat(e) (“satiated, satisfied”), borrowed from Latin saturātus, perfect passive participle of saturō (“to fill, satisfy, quench”) (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from satur (“full”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).
1
Saturated, wet, soaked.
The innocent are gay—the lark is gay, / That dries his feathers, saturate with dew, / Beneath the rosy cloud, while yet the beams / Of dayspring overshoot his humble nest.1785, William Cowper, “The Task”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 23:
There she lay, […] Wax-white, seraphic, saturate with the sun O' the morning that now flooded from the front And filled the window with a light like blood.1868, Robert Browning, “VI. Giuseppe Caponsacchi.”, in The Ring and the Book. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 226, line 1518: