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

A long-distance lorry driver, he said he had no option but to pay privately or "sit and do nothing, vegetate and slow up".

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2023

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

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

This process is at present unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe, although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every direction.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by P. L. Simmonds

Taken as a whole, nobody could at first sight distinguish it in any way from the waving weed among which it vegetates.

From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Grant Allen

By this beneficial influence everything is born, grows, and vegetates.

From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Albert Pike

It has been stated, on high authority, that drainage raises the temperature of the soil, often as much as 15° F. Indian corn vegetates at about 55°.

From Farm drainage The Principles, Processes, and Effects of Draining Land with Stones, Wood, Plows, and Open Ditches, and Especially with Tiles by Henry F. (Henry Flagg) French

It grows upon a twining vine, and vegetates best in a clayey land.

From Antigua and the Antiguans, Volume II (of 2) A full account of the colony and its inhabitants from the time of the Caribs to the present day by Anonymous

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

Crews will install girders over the freeway to support the crossing, a vegetated bridge that will reconnect wildlife habitat, officials said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 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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