domesticate

[ duh-mes-ti-keyt ]

verb (used with object)

, do·mes·ti·cat·ed, do·mes·ti·cat·ing.

1. to convert (animals, plants, etc.) to domestic uses; tame.
2. to tame (an animal), especially by generations of breeding, to live in close association with human beings as a pet or work animal and usually creating a dependency so that the animal loses its ability to live in the wild.
3. to adapt (a plant) so as to be cultivated by and beneficial to human beings.
4. to accustom to household life or affairs.
5. to take (something foreign, unfamiliar, etc.) for one's own use or purposes; adopt.
6. to make more ordinary, familiar, acceptable, or the like:

   to domesticate radical ideas.

verb (used without object)

, do·mes·ti·cat·ed, do·mes·ti·cat·ing.

1. to be domestic.

domesticate

/ dəˈmɛstɪˌsaɪz; dəˈmɛstɪˌkeɪt /

verb

1. to bring or keep (wild animals or plants) under control or cultivation
2. to accustom to home life
3. to adapt to an environment

   to domesticate foreign trees

Derived Forms

• doˌmestiˈcation, noun
• doˈmestiˌcator, noun
• doˈmesticable, adjective
• doˈmesticative, adjective

Other Words From

• do·mes·ti·ca·ble [d, uh, -, mes, -ti-k, uh, -b, uh, l], adjective
• do·mes·ti·ca·tion [d, uh, -mes-ti-, key, -sh, uh, n], noun
• do·mes·ti·ca·tive adjective
• do·mes·ti·ca·tor noun
• non·do·mes·ti·cat·ed adjective
• non·do·mes·ti·cat·ing adjective
• o·ver·do·mes·ti·cate verb (used with object) overdomesticated overdomesticating
• un·do·mes·ti·ca·ble adjective
• un·do·mes·ti·cat·ed adjective
• well-do·mes·ti·cat·ed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of domesticate¹

First recorded in 1635–45; from Medieval Latin domesticātus (past participle of domesticāre ), equivalent to domestic- domestic + -ātus -ate ¹

Example Sentences

A local wildlife sanctuary advised him that feeding the animal was allowed as long as he didn't domesticate her.

From BBC

Finbar is the longtime gunfighter who works by a strict moral code, looking to finally hang up his spurs and domesticate himself.

From Los Angeles Times

“Think about all the people who thought they could domesticate Donald Trump: Chris Christie, Mitt Romney, Jeff Sessions, Kevin McCarthy, Rudy Giuliani, Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, all his wives. I mean, you think this won’t be you, too? Destroying people like you — it’s the only thing Donald Trump is good at. If he asks you to run, run! Get those little legs moving like a toddler going into a Chuck E. Cheese.”

From New York Times

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Davis, started to study the relationship of the mexicana teosinte subspecies to maize in order to understand how the lowland domesticate adapted to the chilly highlands of central Mexico.

From Science Magazine

“You can’t domesticate primates,” Waters says.

From National Geographic

Related Words

• naturalize