irrigate
to supply (land) with water by artificial means, as by diverting streams, flooding, or spraying.
Medicine/Medical. to supply or wash (an orifice, wound, etc.) with a spray or a flow of some liquid.
to moisten; wet.
Origin of irrigate
1Other words from irrigate
- ir·ri·ga·tor, noun
- non·ir·ri·gat·ed, adjective
- non·ir·ri·gat·ing, adjective
- o·ver·ir·ri·gate, verb (used with object), o·ver·ir·ri·gat·ed, o·ver·ir·ri·gat·ing.
- re·ir·ri·gate, verb (used with object), re·ir·ri·gat·ed, re·ir·ri·gat·ing.
- un·ir·ri·gat·ed, adjective
- well-ir·ri·gat·ed, adjective
Words Nearby irrigate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use irrigate in a sentence
Its enormous share of the river, which it uses to irrigate crops across the Imperial Valley and for Los Angeles and other cities, will be in the crosshairs when negotiations over a diminished Colorado begin again.
40 Million People Rely on the Colorado River. It’s Drying Up Fast. | by Abrahm Lustgarten | August 27, 2021 | ProPublicaMountain View Estates was paved and irrigated, as per permitted plans, and the electricity to the units was properly metered, and the units themselves were new, with central air conditioning, to efficiently keep cool.
Postcard From Thermal: Surviving the Climate Gap in Eastern Coachella Valley | by Elizabeth Weil and Mauricio Rodríguez Pons | August 17, 2021 | ProPublicaConsider that we use just 30 trillion gallons to irrigate all our crops.
How Stupid Is Our Obsession With Lawns? (Ep. 289 Rebroadcast) | Stephen J. Dubner | July 1, 2021 | FreakonomicsOnce these plants take hold, they can be irrigated much less frequently than lawns—maybe once every six weeks if it hasn’t rained.
It’s time to rip up your lawn and replace it with something you won’t need to mow | John Kennedy | June 27, 2021 | Popular-ScienceThe Kushites survived another thousand years in Meroë, a port city ideally positioned by the Nile, where irrigated farms flourished next to lucrative gold and iron mines.
Treadle water pumps in Africa and Asia allowed women farmers to irrigate small plots and increase their harvests and incomes.
Women | Tools | Technology: A Global Leapfrog, An ExxonMobil-sponsored Series | Daily Beast Promotions | March 2, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTFrom this cistern large earthen pipes led off in various directions to irrigate the terraces below.
Overland | John William De ForestIt is in a hot valley, skirted by a river, which is made to irrigate the gardens and grounds on its borders.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. SchoolcraftIf water was tapped, it went to irrigate new lands which MacGonigal had added to the ranch.
The Terms of Surrender | Louis TracyIt is enormously fertile, but there is only enough water in it to irrigate a limited number of farms.
Still Jim | Honor Willsie MorrowHis every idea seems hostile to the farmer, whose land the farmer himself is paying him to irrigate.
Still Jim | Honor Willsie Morrow
British Dictionary definitions for irrigate
/ (ˈɪrɪˌɡeɪt) /
to supply (land) with water by means of artificial canals, ditches, etc, esp to promote the growth of food crops
med to bathe or wash out a bodily part, cavity, or wound
(tr) to make fertile, fresh, or vital by or as if by watering
Origin of irrigate
1Derived forms of irrigate
- irrigable, adjective
- irrigation, noun
- irrigational or irrigative, adjective
- irrigator, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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