FERTILISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fertilise mean? 

• FERTILISE (verb)
  The verb FERTILISE has 3 senses:

1. make fertile or productive

2. provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to

3. introduce semen into (a female)

  Familiarity information: FERTILISE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FERTILISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fertilise    ... he / she / it fertilises   
Past simple: fertilised   
Past participle: fertilised   
-ing form: fertilising   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fertile or productive

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

fecundate; fertilise; fertilize

Context example:

The course fertilized her imagination

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

feed; fertilise; fertilize

Context example:

We should fertilize soil if we want to grow healthy plants

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

enrich (make better or improve in quality)

Domain category:

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

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

nitrify (treat (soil) with nitrates)

dung (fertilize or dress with dung)

topdress (scatter manure or fertilizer over (land))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Introduce semen into (a female)

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

fecundate; fertilise; fertilize; inseminate

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

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

stratify (render fertile and preserve by placing between layers of earth or sand)

bang up; impregnate; knock up; prang up (make pregnant)

impregnate (fertilize and cause to grow)

cross-fertilise; cross-fertilize (cause to undergo cross-fertilization)

cross-pollinate; pollenate; pollinate (fertilize by transfering pollen)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

Once a mammalian egg has been fertilised by a sperm, it divides multiple times to generate a small, free-floating ball comprising three types of stem cells.

(Scientists generate key life event in artificial mouse ‘embryo’ created from stem cells, University of Cambridge)

They fertilise in the gut and develop into another parasite form that can then productively infect that mosquito.

(New way to stop falciparum malaria transmission, SciDev.Net)

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)