cultivator
Americannoun
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a person or thing that cultivates.
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an implement drawn between rows of growing plants to loosen the earth and destroy weeds.
noun
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a farm implement equipped with shovels, blades, etc, used to break up soil and remove weeds
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a person or thing that cultivates
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a person who grows, tends, or improves plants or crops
Usage
What does cultivator mean? A cultivator is a farming or gardening tool that breaks up soil and removes weeds in rows where plants are growing or will be grown. It can also mean a person who grows crops. In both of these senses, a close synonym is the word tiller. More generally, cultivator can refer to someone or something that cultivates (grows or develops things). Cultivate is commonly used literally to refer to growing crops or other plants but can also be used figuratively, such as to refer to growing an abstract thing such as a business or a friendship. A cultivator can refer to someone who develops something like this. Example: My garden has become pretty big, so I decided to invest in a cultivator to make planting easier.
Etymology
Origin of cultivator
Vocabulary lists containing cultivator
Novel Study: Of Mice and Men, Chapters 1–3
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Novel Study: The Grapes of Wrath, Chapters 22–30
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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.
Yet master cultivator Tracey can identify the separate varieties by their smell and the shape of their leaves.
From BBC • Jan. 26, 2026
Techniques for conserving water include rolling a cultivator tool over the ground to create a “dust mulch” layer that holds moisture in the soil.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2023
The cells are mixed into this slurry, then they’re thrown into a cultivator or a bioreactor.
From Slate • Dec. 21, 2022
"The Serpent Queen" presents Catherine de Medici as a cultivator of chaos.
From Salon • Sep. 11, 2022
A cultivator, a stripped tractor, a horsetrailer with no side panels and no tires, and other inoperative farm machinery lay about.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
