CULTIVATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does cultivate mean? 

• CULTIVATE (verb)
  The verb CULTIVATE has 4 senses:

1. foster the growth of

2. prepare for crops

3. teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

4. adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment

  Familiarity information: CULTIVATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CULTIVATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cultivate    ... he / she / it cultivates   
Past simple: cultivated   
Past participle: cultivated   
-ing form: cultivating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Foster the growth of

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Domain category:

agriculture; farming; husbandry (the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cultivate"):

farm; grow; produce; raise (cultivate by growing, often involving improvements by means of agricultural techniques)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They cultivate rye in the field

Derivation:

cultivation ((agriculture) production of food by preparing the land to grow crops (especially on a large scale))

cultivation (the process of fostering the growth of something)

cultivator (someone concerned with the science or art or business of cultivating the soil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Prepare for crops

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

crop; cultivate; work

Context example:

cultivate the land

Hypernyms (to "cultivate" is one way to...):

fix; gear up; prepare; ready; set; set up (make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc)

Verb group:

knead; work (make uniform)

Domain category:

agriculture; farming; husbandry (the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cultivate"):

overcrop; overcultivate (to exhaust by excessive cultivation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cultivation ((agriculture) production of food by preparing the land to grow crops (especially on a large scale))

cultivator (a farm implement used to break up the surface of the soil (for aeration and weed control and conservation of moisture))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

civilise; civilize; cultivate; educate; school; train

Context example:

She is well schooled in poetry

Hypernyms (to "cultivate" is one way to...):

down; fine-tune; polish; refine (improve or perfect by pruning or polishing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cultivate"):

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

cultivation (a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cultivate; domesticate; naturalise; naturalize; tame

Context example:

tame the soil

Hypernyms (to "cultivate" is one way to...):

accommodate; adapt (make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose)

Domain category:

flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Lychees are cultivated, harvested and consumed in different parts of Bangladesh but lychee-associated outbreaks have been reported only in Dinajpur and Thakurgaon districts.

(Lychee deaths linked to pesticides, not the fruit, SciDev.Net)

Repetition can be useful if you're trying to memorize a poem, master a guitar riff, or just cultivate good habits.

(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)

Scientists have finished constructing the pan-genome for the cultivated tomato and its wild relatives, mapping almost 5,000 previously undocumented genes.

(Tomato Pan-Genome Makes Bringing Flavor Back Easier, Agricultural Research Service)

“Adapting abundant plants that farmers have been cultivating for thousands of years for use in tissue engineering could solve a host of problems limiting the field.”

(Human Heart Cells Grown on Spinach Leaves, VOA News)

This latest advance has already generated interesting leads, including the geographic origin of A. duranensis, one of the two “parents” of cultivated peanut.

(Peanut Genome Sequenced with Unprecedent Accuracy, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

I found it fully cultivated; but that which first surprised me was the length of the grass, which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for hay, was about twenty feet high.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

High hills rose immediately behind, and at no great distance on each side; some of which were open downs, the others cultivated and woody.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Introducing these genes into cultivated watermelons could yield high-quality, sweet watermelons that are able to grow in more diverse climates, important as climate change increasingly challenges farmers.

(Harvesting genes to improve watermelons, National Science Foundation)

Cultivated in India and North America, ashwagandha (Withania somnifera Dunal or Indian ginseng) belongs to the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.

(Ashwagandha Root Powder Extract, NCI Thesaurus)

I am a bachelor, said he, and being of a sociable turn I cultivate a large number of friends.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)