cross-fertilize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cross-fertilize
First recorded in 1875–80
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:
James Huckenpahler’s digital prints cross-fertilize portraits from the Brady-Handy collection of Civil War-era photography with images from the artist’s computer.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 26, 2018
But the line behind her, filled with a generation of comics who’ve managed to cross-fertilize standup and with a contemporary, queer sensibility, is growing rapidly, and comedy’s evolving apparatus can barely keep pace.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2018
The practical benefit is that the multiple projects cross-fertilize each other.
From Time ● Oct. 6, 2016
If other barnacles also use ocean currents to cross-fertilize, scientists may have to rework their population models, he says.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 16, 2013
The female bumblebees, which, by striking the protruding stigma before they jar out any pollen, cross-fertilize it, are the flower's chief benefactors, but one often sees the little yellow puddle butterfly about it.
From Wild Flowers Worth Knowing by Blanchan, Neltje
When cross-fertilized using pollen from a neighboring normal plant, their tobacco plants unexpectedly produced small, hollow seeds, much like those seen in popular "seedless" fruits such as watermelons and grapes.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2023
When P1 plants with contrasting traits were cross-fertilized, all of the offspring were heterozygous for the contrasting trait, meaning that their genotype reflected that they had different alleles for the gene being examined.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
When true-breeding plants in which one parent had yellow pods and one had green pods were cross-fertilized, all of the F1 hybrid offspring had yellow pods.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
It has repeatedly cross-fertilized with representational painting; absorbed found materials and aspects of popular culture; adopted the strategies of postmodern irony and appropriation.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2010
It was in the Eastern Mediterranean that African, Asian, and European civilizations, including the great cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia, met and cross-fertilized in a vigorous and heady confrontation of prejudices, languages, ideas and gods.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
If things cohere, it is because a massive collaborative energy has swept through the office, cross-fertilizing the different departments.
From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2020
By including and cross-fertilizing so many distinct but related expressive modes, Chance adds yet another layer to this centuries-old interplay, ever so slightly widening its focus.
From The New Yorker ● May 24, 2016
At the same time, its cross-fertilizing mixture of art and décor, form and function, and politics and aesthetics is too meaty and energetic not to succeed on some fronts.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2011
Over the past 18 months, two groups, one representing Silicon Valley, the other Hollywood, have been meeting at trade shows, visiting labs and quietly ! cross-fertilizing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Without the fringe of imperfect stamens, that serves as a harmless trellis easily climbed over, the visitor might stand on the petals and sip nectar without rendering any assistance in cross-fertilizing his entertainers.
From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Blanchan, Neltje
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.
