domesticate
Americanverb (used with object)
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domesticates,
present (3rd person singular)
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domesticated,
past participle, past
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domesticating
present participle
-
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)
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domesticates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
domesticated,
past participle, past
-
domesticating
present participle
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:
Indigenous Andean communities were the first to domesticate the starch-rich crop, turning it into a dietary staple long before potatoes spread around the world.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
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
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
European herders and farmers emigrating to other continents have also made serious efforts to domesticate some local species.
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
Southwest and Mississippi Valley to the modern American breadbaskets of California and Oregon, where Native American societies remained hunter-gatherers merely because they lacked appropriate domesticates.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Such contradictions, that cats can be both domesticated and yet somewhat feral, is part of their appeal, says comedian Drennon Davis, whose four cats have found internet fame via his short-form videos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
But there’s also some solid evidence that humans domesticated ourselves, selecting tameness over aggression.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026
Instead of positioning the product as a domesticated race car, he realized this was Ferrari’s chance to sell something less tangible but infinitely more valuable: the fulfillment of every fan’s childhood dreams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
By examining genetic material preserved in bones and teeth, his team is tracing how domesticated animals such as cattle, goats and sheep spread from the Fertile Crescent across Eurasia.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2026
China’s first revolutionaries domesticated rice, millet and pigs.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
UFO mythology, and especially its mock-scientific terminology, is a way of domesticating the unknown.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
But whereas people artificially selected against aggressive traits when domesticating dogs, similar changes seem to have happened naturally in bonobos—a process known as “self-domestication” that might also have occurred in humans.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 12, 2024
"At Titicaca, Andeans accomplished the remarkable achievement of domesticating plants like the potato, leaving behind a nutritious legacy that is still appreciated today," he said.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2023
All were capable of farming, domesticating animals, and manufacturing textiles and ceramics.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Still, our list of triumphs lacks many wild plants that, despite their value as food, we never succeeded in domesticating.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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