vegetate

American  

[vej-i-tayt] / ˈvɛdʒ ɪˌteɪt /

verb (used without object)

• vegetates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• vegetated,
  past participle,  past
• vegetating
  present participle

1. to grow in, or as in, the manner of a plant.

2. to be passive or unthinking; to do nothing.

   to lie on the beach and vegetate.

3. Pathology. to grow, or increase by growth, as an excrescence.

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vegetate British  

/ ˈvɛdʒɪˌteɪt /

verb

1. to grow like a plant; sprout

2. to lead a life characterized by monotony, passivity, or mental inactivity

3. pathol (of a wart, polyp, etc) to develop fleshy outgrowths

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• vegetating
  present
• vegetated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• vegetate
  simple
• vegetates
  simple
• have vegetated
  perfect
• has vegetated
  perfect
• am vegetating
  progressive
• are vegetating
  progressive
• is vegetating
  progressive
• have been vegetating
  perfect progressive
• has been vegetating
  perfect progressive

Past

• vegetated
  simple
• had vegetated
  perfect
• was vegetating
  progressive
• were vegetating
  progressive
• had been vegetating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will vegetate
  simple
• will have vegetated
  perfect
• will be vegetating
  progressive
• will have been vegetating
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of vegetate

1595–1605; < Latin vegetātus (past participle of vegetāre to quicken, enliven), equivalent to veget ( us ) lively (originally past participle of vegēre to give vigor) + -ātus -ate ¹

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Explanation

When plants vegetate, they spread. When people vegetate, they relax. After a long day, if you want to vegetate or exert no effort in your body or mind, try sitting in front of the TV for hours. The word vegetate has opposite meanings depending on whether you're talking about plants or people. When vegetables vegetate, they proliferate or spread really quickly. When a person vegetates, he remains completely idle. A person in a vegetative state is not able to function, only to vegetate or remain completely inactive.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vegetate vegetates vegetated vegetating

He used to come home from a hard practice and vegetate on the couch, shattered by exhaustion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025

A long-distance lorry driver, he said he had no option but to pay privately or "sit and do nothing, vegetate and slow up".

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2023

Made up of local efforts across 11 countries, it has reached just 16% of its overall goal to vegetate 150 million hectares.

From Science Magazine ● Feb. 11, 2021

Birds arrive and leave droppings that help vegetate the future dunes.

From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2011

But after a while he became convinced that if he was ever going to do anything in Milagro besides vegetate and play the fool, he needed mobility.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

It merely vegetates,  fleeing from enemies who are too strong for it, and depriving itself of a dangerous comfort.

From The Industries of Animals by Frédéric Houssay

This process is at present unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe, although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every direction.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. Simmonds

He vegetates as completely as any one I have ever seen or dreamed of.

From Fr?ulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim

Mrs. Adams gives me an account of a flower found in Connecticut, which vegetates when suspended in the air.

From Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1 by Thomas Jefferson Randolph

Well, I suppose that sort of individual is a little less obtuse when he lives within the roar of the great city's thunder than when he vegetates in the dismal outskirts of a manufacturing town.

From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Flash floods are common in Northern Arizona because the arid, sparsely vegetated environments there have little capacity to absorb rain, the park's website said, urging visitors to be especially cautious from July to mid-September.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

It will be the world’s largest, covering ten lanes of traffic with 210 feet of vegetated bridge.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026

Capybaras aren’t native to Mexico; they are South American, occupying savannas and vegetated areas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

They have been found living along the vegetated banks of Osbaldwick Beck which runs through the park, following a seven-year project to improve the wildlife habitat in the area.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2024

Native Mexican women dressed in pale tunics slid their paddles into the lake and rowed slowly, serenely across the water toward what could only be described as densely vegetated islands floating on the water.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

"It stops your life progressing. You're just vegetating your life away," she said.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Even in that condition he went to law offices in Atlanta every day he could, chiefly to keep from vegetating.

From Golf Digest ● Mar. 23, 2020

And without work he and his wife began to feel that they were vegetating.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017

“You said we don’t want people vegetating in public housing. Those comments were concerning to me,” remarked freshman Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2017

Otherwise you’re nobody, nothing, a potato vegetating in your seven-by-ten limbo.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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