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.
She liked to botanize, collecting specimens of plants along the route.
From National Geographic • Jul. 2, 2017
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 Lowell, James Russell
On the narrow lake we found a small boat, in which Mr. Moser pushed about to botanize.
From Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843) Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume XXII by Maximilian, Alexander Philipp
Bent upon their own factious aims, the combatants have no time to concern themselves with the doings of an English traveller, whose object out there is ostensibly to botanize and shoot.
From The Treasure of the Incas by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
One, all eyes, Philosopher! a fingering slave, One that would peep and botanize Upon his mother's grave?
From Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, 1800, Volume 2 by Wordsworth, William
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.
