inoculate
verb (used with object)
to implant (a disease agent or antigen) in a person, animal, or plant to produce a disease for study or to stimulate disease resistance.
inoculating
-
present participleof inoculate.present participle
A verb form that is used in progressive verb constructions and may also function as a modifier or a gerund.
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.
Rabbi David Baron of Temple of the Arts wishes to create a global curriculum on “altruistic behavior”—his way of inoculating the young against extremism—in honor of the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
Another collaborator, Deb Cabin, who studies prion disease at the McLaughlin Research Institute, flew out from Great Falls, Montana, to instruct them on inoculating the mice with infectious prion.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 21, 2024
I knew, as many historians knew before me, that free and enslaved West Africans on both sides of the Atlantic were inoculating against disease before the early 18th century.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2023
Like I’m hearing that pre-bunking, inoculating people against disinformation might be really helpful, along with flooding the zone with facts.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
From the microbes’ point of view, however, they’re just a useful device to enlist a host’s help in inoculating microbes into a body cavity of a new host.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
