irrigate
Americanverb (used with object)
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irrigates,
present (3rd person singular)
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irrigated,
past participle, past
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irrigating
present participle
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to supply (land) with water by artificial means, as by diverting streams, flooding, or spraying.
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Medicine/Medical. to supply or wash (an orifice, wound, etc.) with a spray or a flow of some liquid.
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to moisten; wet.
verb
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to supply (land) with water by means of artificial canals, ditches, etc, esp to promote the growth of food crops
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med to bathe or wash out a bodily part, cavity, or wound
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(tr) to make fertile, fresh, or vital by or as if by watering
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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irrigationnoun
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irrigatornoun
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overirrigateverb (used with object)
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reirrigateverb (used with object)
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irrigableadjective
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irrigationaladjective
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nonirrigatedadjective
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nonirrigatingadjective
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unirrigatedadjective
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well-irrigatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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irrigatesimple
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irrigatessimple
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have irrigatedperfect
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has irrigatedperfect
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am irrigatingprogressive
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are irrigatingprogressive
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is irrigatingprogressive
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have been irrigatingperfect progressive
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has been irrigatingperfect progressive
Past
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irrigatedsimple
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had irrigatedperfect
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was irrigatingprogressive
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were irrigatingprogressive
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had been irrigatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of irrigate
1605–15; < Latin irrigātus, past participle of irrigāre to wet, flood, nourish with water, equivalent to ir- ir- 1 + rigā- (stem of rigāre to provide with water, soak) + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
To irrigate is to supply with water, usually with ditches and channels that allow the water to flow. Irrigating is a type of watering that is important in one field in particular: farming. If a farmer has a huge number of crops, you can see how getting water to them could be difficult. The farmer irrigates by digging little channels that allow hard-to-reach spots to receive water. If there is a drought, irrigating will have to happen often to save the crops. People with large gardens might need to irrigate as well. Irrigating waters plants, keeping them alive.
Vocabulary lists containing irrigate
Civilizations and Peoples of the Fertile Crescent, Lessons 1–2
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Chapter 1: The First Americans
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Unit 1: Ecological Systems
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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:
"At the moment, we're using world-class drinking water to cool data centres, to irrigate our golf courses," Daniel Johns says.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
A water source gets contaminated in some way, and that water is then used to irrigate a field.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
One of the two canals that irrigate it has been shut because the seawater would enter and damage the crops.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
Built to provide electricity for the southwestern United States and to irrigate Nevada, it was the great cause of Herbert Hoover.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
“What you all ought to do,” Johnny Pacheco said, “is get up some morning around 4:00 A.M. and irrigate the whole west side.”
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
A water system irrigates the plants via a nutrient substrate, a liquid fertiliser that replaces the nutrients and minerals naturally present in the soil.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Nearby, water pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer irrigates fields of peanuts and cotton.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
The study found regional differences in the Colorado River Basin, where the water irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmlands and ranchlands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
And because most pumped groundwater irrigates crops, major declines in availability could lead to a global food crisis.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2023
The Lower Ganges canal, an extension of the original canal, has been in operation since 1878 and irrigates 830,000 acres.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
For golf courses this means the greens and tees can be irrigated but the fairways cannot.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Janssen explained that 200 units of nitrogen are used per acre of irrigated corn.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
The property features three creeks that “meander through the ranch for over five miles,” as well as irrigated meadows and “historic water rights irrigating 1,200 acres.”
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
In fact, the Getty Villa credited its pruned landscaping and irrigated grounds with helping to save the museum’s structures from the Palisades fire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
The most productive Polynesian agriculture was taro cultivation in irrigated fields.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Italy’s longest river, the Po, is essential for irrigating farmland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Christine Devin, who arrived in 1974 after travelling overland on the hippie trail from Paris, remembers digging wells, irrigating the land and everyone pitching in to build houses and communal buildings like the solar kitchen.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, is part of a broader effort to understand the safety of irrigating crops with municipal wastewater.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 15, 2026
The state’s action will prohibit landowners from irrigating any additional farmland in this part of La Paz County and require those with high-capacity wells to start reporting how much water they use.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2026
But he was not irrigating fields, milking cows, or otherwise performing feats of agricultural masochism which might warrant such early rising.
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.
