vegetate
vegetate Lexical Profile
vegetate Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To live or spend a period of time in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way without physical or mental effort.
"After a stressful week of final exams, he just wanted to stay home and vegetate on the couch all weekend."
To grow, sprout, or reproduce in the manner of a plant.
"Once the spring rains arrived, dormant seeds in the desert soil began to vegetate rapidly."
To increase in size or produce abnormal wart-like excrescences (of a pathological tissue or growth).
"Untreated bacterial infections on heart valves can cause tissue lesions to vegetate."
• Rhymes for vegetate
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the late 16th century, 'vegetate' derives from Late Latin 'vegetatus', past participle of 'vegetare' ('to enliven' or 'to grow'), from 'vegetus' ('vigorous' or 'lively'). Ironically, a root that originally meant 'to animate' came to describe passive, plant-like inactivity.