To regurgitate means to bring swallowed food back up from the stomach to the mouth. Some birds regurgitate food to feed their babies: a mother bird swallows insects or worms, flies back to the nest, and brings the partially digested food back up for her chicks. Some animals like cows naturally regurgitate their food to chew it more thoroughly, a process called “chewing the cud.”

The word also describes repeating information without really understanding it or thinking about it. When a student regurgitates facts on a test, they're just repeating memorized information exactly as they heard it, without showing they actually understood the ideas. A teacher might say, “Don't just regurgitate what the textbook says; explain it in your own words and tell me what you think it means.”

This second meaning suggests something mechanical and thoughtless, like a machine copying data. Simply regurgitating facts shows you can memorize, but thinking critically and explaining concepts in new ways shows you truly understand them.