botanize
Americanverb (used without object)
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to study plants or plant life.
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to collect plants for scientific study.
verb (used with object)
verb
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(intr) to collect or study plants
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(tr) to explore and study the plants in (an area or region)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of botanize
1760–70; < New Latin botanizāre < Greek botanízein to gather plants. See botanist, -ize
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:
She liked to botanize, collecting specimens of plants along the route.
From National Geographic ● Jul. 2, 2017
Two or three miles from Porth there is a great marsh made by the Afon river before it falls into the sea, and here Merritt had been accustomed to botanize mildly.
From The Terror A Mystery by Arthur Machen
I feasted awhile on their beauty, watching their coming in from afar like faithful messengers, to tell their stories one by one; then I turned reluctantly away, to botanize and wait a calm.
From Steep Trails California, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, the Grand Canyon by John Muir
Lowell's attitude toward science is that of Wordsworth, when he speaks of the dry-souled scientist as one who is all eyes and no heart, "One that would peep and botanize Upon his mother's grave."
From The Vision of Sir Launfal And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell; Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Julian W. Abernethy, PH.D. by James Russell Lowell
Such a writer can, indeed, peep and botanize on the grave of Mother Nature, but never evoke her spirit.
From Algonquin Legends of New England by Charles Godfrey Leland
In these walks young master botanized and geologized his own father, and Sir Charles gave him a little politics, history, and English poetry, in return.
From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade
While visiting Paris in 1738 Linnaeus met and botanized with the two botanists whose "natural method" of classification was later to supplant his own "artificial system."
From A History of Science — Volume 2 by Henry Smith Williams
Many a man has botanized across the continent, and yet not know the "Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley."
From New Tabernacle Sermons by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
For eight years he taught school, or botanized, roamed the woods with his gun, worked at the loom, and peddled his verses among the inhabitants of New Jersey.
From Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier by Frank H. Severance
I have never fished nor botanized here, but I have been a-birding many times.
From Roof and Meadow by Dallas Lore Sharp
Gardeners will savor stories of 19th century botanizing and appreciate Hosack’s quest to save a garden, the most ephemeral of treasures, for posterity.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 16, 2018
Ray encouraged Willughby’s interests in mathematics and took him botanizing.
From Nature ● May 1, 2018
"Miss Carter promised she'd take us a botanizing ramble some afternoon," said Dorothy.
From A Pair of Schoolgirls A Story of School Days by Angela Brazil
The mulberries are reddening, the Doctor reports on his return with the Boy from a botanizing expedition, and black-caps are turning; while bergamot and vervain are among the plants newly added to the herbarium.
From Afloat on the Ohio An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo by Reuben Gold Thwaites
Mushroom hunting is akin in pleasure to botanizing, geologizing, or the gathering of any natural history specimens.
From The Century Cook Book by Mary Ronald
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
