self-pollinate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
Etymology
Origin of self-pollinate
First recorded in 1885–90
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:
Infinitely creative, some flowers know what to do when good men are hard to find—they self-pollinate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
When cranberries don't self-pollinate, they rely on bumblebees and honeybees to transport their pollen from flower to flower.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2023
In rice, seed companies must first develop a strain of plants that can’t self-pollinate.
From Science Magazine ● May 17, 2023
The Reginas do not self-pollinate, which is why Fowler needs bees to pick up pollen from other varieties interspersed in the rows — and drop it in the Regina blossoms.
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2022
Other plants pollinate via wind or water; still others self-pollinate.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
The stocks were true-breeding, meaning that when self-pollinated, the offspring had the same traits as the parents.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2018
First of all, cotton is self-pollinated rather than wind-pollinated, so that the spread of the Bt gene is of less concern.
From Time Magazine Archive
For inbreeding, the tassels and silk are protected by paper bags until maturity, and the plants are then self-pollinated by hand.
From Time Magazine Archive
Once more the flowers were self-pollinated and the visits of insects excluded.
From Species and Varieties, Their Origin by Mutation by Hugo de Vries
But the most encouraging feature of these chinquapin-crenata crosses is the excellence of their seedlings as grown from chance or self-pollinated nuts.
From Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Seventh Annual Meeting Washington, D. C. September 8 and 9, 1916. by Northern Nut Growers Association
To avoid potentially deadly wildlife he focused on self-pollinating varieties.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
Additionally, most fruit trees are either self-pollinating or require a second tree for pollination.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2021
High-yield hybrid corn was already in production, and Mr. Yuan sought to do something similar with rice, a self-pollinating crop that posed a far greater challenge for plant breeders.
From Washington Post ● May 25, 2021
The immigrant Berckmanses, along with genteel entrepreneurs like Samuel Rumph, selectively bred natural and imported peaches into the self-pollinating Elberta cultivar, Georgia’s best-known variety.
From Slate ● Jan. 5, 2021
They were mostly self-pollinating: that is, the crop varieties could pollinate themselves and pass on their own desirable genes unchanged, instead of having to hybridize with other varieties less useful to humans.
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.
