domesticate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to tame (an animal), especially by generations of breeding, to live in close association with human beings as a pet or work animal and usually creating a dependency so that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild.
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to adapt (a plant) so as to be cultivated by and beneficial to human beings.
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to accustom to household life or affairs.
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to take (something foreign, unfamiliar, etc.) for one's own use or purposes; adopt.
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to make more ordinary, familiar, acceptable, or the like.
to domesticate radical ideas.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to bring or keep (wild animals or plants) under control or cultivation
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to accustom to home life
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to adapt to an environment
to domesticate foreign trees
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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domesticationnoun
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domesticatornoun
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overdomesticateverb (used with object)
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domesticableadjective
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domesticativeadjective
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nondomesticatedadjective
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nondomesticatingadjective
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undomesticableadjective
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undomesticatedadjective
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well-domesticatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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domesticatesimple
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domesticatessimple
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have domesticatedperfect
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has domesticatedperfect
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am domesticatingprogressive
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are domesticatingprogressive
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is domesticatingprogressive
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have been domesticatingperfect progressive
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has been domesticatingperfect progressive
Past
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domesticatedsimple
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had domesticatedperfect
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was domesticatingprogressive
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were domesticatingprogressive
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had been domesticatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of domesticate
First recorded in 1635–45; from Medieval Latin domesticātus (past participle of domesticāre ), equivalent to domestic- domestic + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To domesticate something is to tame a wild animal or plant so it can live with people. Dogs and cats are called domesticated animals because they live with us peacefully. Nobody knows who first domesticated a wolf, but whoever it was was a very important person. If people hadn't started living with wolves, slowly domesticating them and teaching them to get along with people, wolves would never have evolved into today's dogs. We usually talk about how to domesticate animals, but wild plants can be domesticated too.
Vocabulary lists containing domesticate
The Middle East and Central Asia - Introductory
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The Middle East and Central Asia - Middle School
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The Middle East and Central Asia - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
And rather than trying to domesticate every step of a supply chain, identify the true chokepoints—the raw silicon, the wafer, the chip assembly—and secure those.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
"We can use these modern tools to domesticate undomesticated crops."
From Science Daily ● Jan. 11, 2026
And yet none of them voted against it; some tried to domesticate it or expressed hope that South Carolina would be ready for a bill this extreme in the future.
From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2025
Archaeological evidence indicated that the two regions may have been in contact at least 10,000 years ago when people in Mesopotamia began to farm and domesticate animals, leading to the emergence of an agricultural society.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
Instead, the reason Native Americans did not domesticate apples lay with the entire suite of wild plant and animal species available to Native Americans.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
It heralds “Ol’ Man River’s” heartbreak, the way enough time in Hollywood domesticates even the freest spirit into commercial relatability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
So these captive wolves have taken on an uneasy status: not wild, nor yet domesticates.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2020
Cats are called commensal domesticates, Levy reminded the jury, which means they choose to live with humans, but they can revert back to feral state.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 12, 2014
The study of animal bones... shows that cattle were the most common domesticates at the sites.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2012
Those imported domesticates may be thought of as “founder” crops and animals, because they founded local food production.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Honestly, I respect her autonomy in that regard, and I can pick up what she’s putting down . . . even a domesticated dog is cooler than a dragon.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
Dusky farmerfish in East Asia grow “crops” of red algae by assiduously “weeding out less palatable foods” and have effectively domesticated a type of shrimp whose waste fertilizes the algae and boosts yields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Compared to wild wheat, early domesticated varieties were far better at competing for resources in crowded fields.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2026
"Wherever dogs were first domesticated, they had already reached Europe by at least 14,000 years ago and they go on to contribute quite substantially to the dogs we see today," Bergström told me.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
At best, however, these three domesticated animal species provided only occasional meals.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
"These people were living a primarily hunting-and-gathering lifestyle and probably had only recently begun growing crops and domesticating animals."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 14, 2024
Humans have a long history of domesticating and crossing wild plants to produce new generations with better flavor and higher yields.
From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2023
To Linklater, this raises the concern that dehorning might be inadvertently domesticating rhinos, because the rhinos that are most wild and can least acclimate to capture would be least likely to survive and breed.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 11, 2023
Second, the process of domesticating wild plants inevitably leads to a substantial decrease in genetic diversity in general.
From Scientific American ● May 4, 2023
They can be expected to have discovered and tested any wild plant species worth domesticating.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
