vegetate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb lead a passive existence without using one's body or mind
  2. verb establish vegetation on
    • They vegetated the hills behind their house
  3. verb produce vegetation
    • The fields vegetate vigorously
  4. verb grow like a plant
    • This fungus usually vegetates vigorously
  5. verb grow or spread abnormally
    • warts and polyps can vegetate if not removed
  6. verb propagate asexually
    • The bacterial growth vegetated along
  7. verb engage in passive relaxation
    vege out.
    • After a hard day's work, I vegetate in front of the television

WordNet

Veg"e*tate intransitive verb
Etymology
L. vegetatus, p. p. of vegetare to enliven. See Vegetable.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Vegetated ; present participle & verbal noun Vegetating
Definitions
  1. To grow, as plants, by nutriment imbibed by means of roots and leaves; to start into growth; to sprout; to germinate.
    See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again. Pope.
  2. Fig.: To lead a live too low for an animate creature; to do nothing but eat and grow. Cowper.
    Persons who . . . would have vegetated stupidly in the places where fortune had fixed them. Jeffrey.
  3. (Med.) To grow exuberantly; to produce fleshy or warty outgrowths; as, a vegetating papule.

Webster 1913