v. Somewhat rare. [f. as prec. + -ATE3.] intr. To perform one’s function; to work, operate; to officiate. Hence Functionating vbl. sb., in quot. attrib.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 149. The worst of the class is, they’ll only functionate for your grand dinners, and they leave your every-day meal to some inferior in the department.
1869. Daily News, 11 June. The reflective faculty remains in undisturbed repose. As the French say, it does not ‘functionate.’
1873. E. H. Clarke, Sex in Educ., 40. The muscles and the brain cannot functionate in their best way at the same moment.
1891. D. Wilson, Right Hand, xi. 187. The existence, then, of greater nutrition and greater functionating ability in the left hemisphere might well be assumed.
