vegetate

American  

[vej-i-tayt] / ˈvɛdʒ ɪˌteɪt /

verb (used without object)

• vegetates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• vegetated,
  past participle,  past
• vegetating
  present participle

1. to grow in, or as in, the manner of a plant.

2. to be passive or unthinking; to do nothing.

   to lie on the beach and vegetate.

3. Pathology. to grow, or increase by growth, as an excrescence.

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vegetate British  

/ ˈvɛdʒɪˌteɪt /

verb

1. to grow like a plant; sprout

2. to lead a life characterized by monotony, passivity, or mental inactivity

3. pathol (of a wart, polyp, etc) to develop fleshy outgrowths

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• vegetating
  present
• vegetated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• vegetate
  simple
• vegetates
  simple
• have vegetated
  perfect
• has vegetated
  perfect
• am vegetating
  progressive
• are vegetating
  progressive
• is vegetating
  progressive
• have been vegetating
  perfect progressive
• has been vegetating
  perfect progressive

Past

• vegetated
  simple
• had vegetated
  perfect
• was vegetating
  progressive
• were vegetating
  progressive
• had been vegetating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will vegetate
  simple
• will have vegetated
  perfect
• will be vegetating
  progressive
• will have been vegetating
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of vegetate

1595–1605; < Latin vegetātus (past participle of vegetāre to quicken, enliven), equivalent to veget ( us ) lively (originally past participle of vegēre to give vigor) + -ātus -ate ¹

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Explanation

When plants vegetate, they spread. When people vegetate, they relax. After a long day, if you want to vegetate or exert no effort in your body or mind, try sitting in front of the TV for hours. The word vegetate has opposite meanings depending on whether you're talking about plants or people. When vegetables vegetate, they proliferate or spread really quickly. When a person vegetates, he remains completely idle. A person in a vegetative state is not able to function, only to vegetate or remain completely inactive.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vegetate vegetates vegetated vegetating

He used to come home from a hard practice and vegetate on the couch, shattered by exhaustion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025

Made up of local efforts across 11 countries, it has reached just 16% of its overall goal to vegetate 150 million hectares.

From Science Magazine ● Feb. 11, 2021

"To sit and vegetate is not my scene, I've got to keep myself active," he said.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2012

Birds arrive and leave droppings that help vegetate the future dunes.

From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2011

So mostly I just vegetate in the basement and pick my navel, to quote Grim, Mr. Belly Button Lint himself.

From "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick

I like Myers very much, a consistent bearer, has thinnest shell of all, vegetates after frost in spring, has abundant foliage and twigs, holds leaves until late autumn.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Report Wooster, Ohio, September 3, 4, 5, 1946 by Northern Nut Growers Association

One vegetates, that is to say, one develops in a certain meagre fashion, which is, however, sufficient for life.

From Les Misérables by Isabel Florence Hapgood

The plant vegetates, and its vegetation 123 is a development, a becoming.

From The Reform of Education by Giovanni Gentile

Sowing.—As the seed vegetates slowly,—sometimes remaining in the earth four or five weeks before the plants appear,—the sowing should be made as early in spring as the ground is in working condition.

From The Field and Garden Vegetables of America Containing Full Descriptions of Nearly Eleven Hundred Species and Varietes; With Directions for Propagation, Culture and Use. by Fearing Burr

As a safer variety in the Lancaster district Mr. Jones has substituted the Faust from Bamberg, S. C., which vegetates later in spring and thus far has proved less subject to injury.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Fifteenth Annual Meeting New York City, September 3, 4 and 5, 1924 by Northern Nut Growers Association

Flash floods are common in Northern Arizona because the arid, sparsely vegetated environments there have little capacity to absorb rain, the park's website said, urging visitors to be especially cautious from July to mid-September.

From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026

It will be the world’s largest, covering ten lanes of traffic with 210 feet of vegetated bridge.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026

Capybaras aren’t native to Mexico; they are South American, occupying savannas and vegetated areas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

They have been found living along the vegetated banks of Osbaldwick Beck which runs through the park, following a seven-year project to improve the wildlife habitat in the area.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2024

Native Mexican women dressed in pale tunics slid their paddles into the lake and rowed slowly, serenely across the water toward what could only be described as densely vegetated islands floating on the water.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

"It stops your life progressing. You're just vegetating your life away," she said.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

Even in that condition he went to law offices in Atlanta every day he could, chiefly to keep from vegetating.

From Golf Digest ● Mar. 23, 2020

And without work he and his wife began to feel that they were vegetating.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017

“You said we don’t want people vegetating in public housing. Those comments were concerning to me,” remarked freshman Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2017

Otherwise you’re nobody, nothing, a potato vegetating in your seven-by-ten limbo.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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