cross-pollinate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Etymology
Origin of cross-pollinate
First recorded in 1895–1900
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:
The bank thinks it can get its various lines of business—from consumer deposits to wealth management to investment banking—to cross-pollinate faster and fuel profits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
It would have been too tricky to cross-pollinate them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
We cross-pollinate plants that have the attributes that we’re looking for.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 26, 2023
Unless you’re growing a multigraft espalier, or your neighbors have apple trees in their garden, to get good fruit set, you’ll need to plant more than one variety so the trees can cross-pollinate.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2023
They were virtually impossible to cross-pollinate and rarely generated hybrids.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
He travelled across India collecting seeds and brought them back to his farm where he cross-pollinated them.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
“It’s based on the melting pot of the unprecedented cross-pollinated experiment of America,” she continues of Americana.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2023
Another common category is hybrid seeds, which are simply seeds from plants that have been cross-pollinated with a goal in mind.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2023
The comic opera tradition — which traditionally has included not only spoken dialogue, but also smaller voices relative to grander works in the repertory — has since cross-pollinated with neighboring forms like the musical.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2022
Selfers were also convenient for early farmers in that they occasionally did become cross-pollinated, thereby generating new varieties among which to select.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Nuccio’s Nurseries offers more than 500 varieties of camellias, many created by cross-pollinating bees and then nurtured by the owners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 2, 2025
David Austin Roses usually releases about two varieties every year — another is expected next month — after selecting two parental roses and hybridizing them by cross-pollinating around 40,000 seeds by hand.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 18, 2023
I’m not sure if this group of documentary comedy artists, who have elevated a legacy still connected to lowbrow prank humor, can be considered a scene, but they are cross-pollinating and growing in ambition.
From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2021
In that same year, Markus Kobelt — a nurseryman in Buchs, Switzerland — developed his acclaimed Redlove apples after cross-pollinating red-fleshed varieties with Royal Gala and Braeburn apples.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2021
The amount of pollen produced by the Reed variety has always been considered ample for cross-pollinating the Potomac, even though the former has been a light producer of catkins.
From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting Urbana, Illinois, August 28, 29 and 30, 1951 by Northern Nut Growers Association
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.
