vegetate
Americanverb (used without object)
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vegetates,
present (3rd person singular)
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vegetated,
past participle, past
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vegetating
present participle
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to grow in, or as in, the manner of a plant.
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to be passive or unthinking; to do nothing.
to lie on the beach and vegetate.
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Pathology. to grow, or increase by growth, as an excrescence.
verb
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to grow like a plant; sprout
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to lead a life characterized by monotony, passivity, or mental inactivity
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pathol (of a wart, polyp, etc) to develop fleshy outgrowths
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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vegetatesimple
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vegetatessimple
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have vegetatedperfect
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has vegetatedperfect
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am vegetatingprogressive
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are vegetatingprogressive
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is vegetatingprogressive
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have been vegetatingperfect progressive
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has been vegetatingperfect progressive
Past
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vegetatedsimple
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had vegetatedperfect
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was vegetatingprogressive
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were vegetatingprogressive
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had been vegetatingperfect progressive
Future
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing vegetate
Freak the Mighty
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Seedfolks
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "V"
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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:
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
During her many spells in hospital she didn't want to sit on her bed and "vegetate."
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2020
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
So that in certain Parts of the Body it only animates and vegetates.
From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus
He sleeps, eats, drinks, goes to school, comes home, runs out into the garden, sleeps, eats, drinks again and so on, vegetates like the plants in the sunshine.
From The Son of His Mother by Clara Viebig
Well, I suppose that sort of individual is a little less obtuse when he lives within the roar of the great city's thunder than when he vegetates in the dismal outskirts of a manufacturing town.
From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
In his eyes, the success of a thing answers for its quality, and the charlatanism that succeeds is superior to the merit that vegetates.
From Jonathan and His Continent Rambles Through American Society by Jack Allyn
It merely vegetates, fleeing from enemies who are too strong for it, and depriving itself of a dangerous comfort.
From The Industries of Animals by Frédéric Houssay
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
Its landscapes include grasslands, lagoons, heathland and vegetated shingle, which supports a range of creatures, flora and fauna - not just birds.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
Capybaras aren’t native to Mexico; they are South American, occupying savannas and vegetated areas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
The researchers used satellite data to look for green, vegetated areas within dryland areas, indicating an oasis, and tracked changes over 25 years.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 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
I expect as i well it was the sight of my own father, vegetating in his chair by the fire.
From "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman
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