irrigate
Americanverb (used with object)
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irrigates,
present (3rd person singular)
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irrigated,
past participle, past
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irrigating
present participle
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to supply (land) with water by artificial means, as by diverting streams, flooding, or spraying.
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Medicine/Medical. to supply or wash (an orifice, wound, etc.) with a spray or a flow of some liquid.
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to moisten; wet.
verb
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to supply (land) with water by means of artificial canals, ditches, etc, esp to promote the growth of food crops
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med to bathe or wash out a bodily part, cavity, or wound
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(tr) to make fertile, fresh, or vital by or as if by watering
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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irrigationnoun
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irrigatornoun
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overirrigateverb (used with object)
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reirrigateverb (used with object)
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irrigableadjective
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irrigationaladjective
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nonirrigatedadjective
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nonirrigatingadjective
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unirrigatedadjective
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well-irrigatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irrigatesimple
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irrigatessimple
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have irrigatedperfect
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has irrigatedperfect
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am irrigatingprogressive
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are irrigatingprogressive
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is irrigatingprogressive
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have been irrigatingperfect progressive
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has been irrigatingperfect progressive
Past
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irrigatedsimple
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had irrigatedperfect
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was irrigatingprogressive
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were irrigatingprogressive
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had been irrigatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irrigate
1605–15; < Latin irrigātus, past participle of irrigāre to wet, flood, nourish with water, equivalent to ir- ir- 1 + rigā- (stem of rigāre to provide with water, soak) + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
To irrigate is to supply with water, usually with ditches and channels that allow the water to flow. Irrigating is a type of watering that is important in one field in particular: farming. If a farmer has a huge number of crops, you can see how getting water to them could be difficult. The farmer irrigates by digging little channels that allow hard-to-reach spots to receive water. If there is a drought, irrigating will have to happen often to save the crops. People with large gardens might need to irrigate as well. Irrigating waters plants, keeping them alive.
Vocabulary lists containing irrigate
Civilizations and Peoples of the Fertile Crescent, Lessons 1–2
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Chapter 1: The First Americans
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Unit 1: Ecological Systems
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
We irrigate our lawns and other greenery, which is a boon to the beetles because they need moist landscapes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
If he was to irrigate all his crops to keep them alive, the costs would be so high his cauliflowers, spuds and carrots would be far pricier than supermarket alternatives.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
A water source gets contaminated in some way, and that water is then used to irrigate a field.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
One of the two canals that irrigate it has been shut because the seawater would enter and damage the crops.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
A single canal system could carry enough water to irrigate an estimated ten thousand acres.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
A water system irrigates the plants via a nutrient substrate, a liquid fertiliser that replaces the nutrients and minerals naturally present in the soil.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Nearby, water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer irrigates fields of peanuts and cotton.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
And because most pumped groundwater irrigates crops, major declines in availability could lead to a global food crisis.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2023
Water drawn from the river flows to more than 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles and irrigates more than 4 million acres of farmland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2023
Red laughed at the youngster's discomfiture: "That little squib of yourn shore touched her off—I reckon we irrigates on yu this time, don't we?"
From Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up by Clarence Edward Mulford
More than half of the Colorado River’s water is used for irrigated agriculture, and in recent years the federal government has been effectively subsidizing farmers to leave their water unused.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Janssen explained that 200 units of nitrogen are used per acre of irrigated corn.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
The property features three creeks that “meander through the ranch for over five miles,” as well as irrigated meadows and “historic water rights irrigating 1,200 acres.”
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
It has argued that just a 2% reduction in the amount of water it gets from the Nile could result in the loss of 200,000 acres of irrigated land.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2025
Agriculture occurred in as much as two-thirds of what is now the continental United States, with large swathes of the Southwest terraced and irrigated.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Italy’s longest river, the Po, is essential for irrigating farmland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
It's essential to the entire operation here: irrigating young plants, spraying fertilizers and plowing the soil.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, is part of a broader effort to understand the safety of irrigating crops with municipal wastewater.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2026
He had to start irrigating his fields in March.
From BBC ● May 14, 2025
“Are you or are you not going to stop irrigating that field?” he asked.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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