domesticate
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.
to adapt (a plant) so as to be cultivated by and beneficial to human beings.
to accustom to household life or affairs.
to take (something foreign, unfamiliar, etc.) for one's own use or purposes; adopt.
to make more ordinary, familiar, acceptable, or the like: to domesticate radical ideas.
to be domestic.
Origin of domesticate
1Other words from domesticate
- do·mes·ti·ca·ble [duh-mes-ti-kuh-buhl], /dəˈmɛs tɪ kə bəl/, adjective
- do·mes·ti·ca·tion [duh-mes-ti-key-shuhn], /dəˌmɛs tɪˈkeɪ ʃən/, 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), o·ver·do·mes·ti·cat·ed, o·ver·do·mes·ti·cat·ing.
- un·do·mes·ti·ca·ble, adjective
- un·do·mes·ti·cat·ed, adjective
- well-do·mes·ti·cat·ed, adjective
Words Nearby domesticate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use domesticate in a sentence
Even weirder, the source of these proteins relies on viral genes domesticated eons ago by our own genome through evolution.
Surprise! Our Bodies Have Been Hiding a Trojan Horse for Gene Therapy | Shelly Fan | August 24, 2021 | Singularity HubUnlike their domesticated counterparts, the wolf puppies spent 12 to 24 hours a day in human care from about 10 days after birth up to and throughout the testing period.
Puppies beat out young wolves in one important skill | Monroe Hammond | July 26, 2021 | Popular-ScienceUntil now, SibFox was the closest anyone in the US had gotten to receiving a domesticated fox.
In fact, dogs are such great friends that humans probably domesticated them not once, but twice.
In those boxes lay samples from 148 species and 41 genera of domesticated plants collected from 109 countries.
The Botanist Who Defied Stalin - Issue 99: Universality | Lee Alan Dugatkin | April 21, 2021 | Nautilus
Humans spent a long time domesticating cattle, and what they were trying to do, in essence, was de-domesticate them.
As Sandra Bullock has found out, any attempt to domesticate them will end in a resounding failure.
By marginalizing certain political tendencies, the European approach makes it harder to domesticate them.
I know a pretty woman from a plain one, I hope, even though I dont personally want to domesticate the recording angel.
The Romance of His Life | Mary CholmondeleyThe hunter is thought to have been seized, one fine day, with an impulse to domesticate animals instead of hunting them.
Elements of Folk Psychology | Wilhelm WundtHis place was well named for he was a great horticulturist, the first to domesticate the Catawba grape.
A Portrait of Old George Town | Grace Dunlop EckerThey have now begun to domesticate certain species of Meliponas, by introducing them into earthen pots or wooden cases.
The Insect World | Louis FiguierThey seem somewhat like the buffalo and other wild animals that we have never been able to domesticate.
Seventy Years on the Frontier | Alexander Majors
British Dictionary definitions for domesticate
sometimes US domesticize (dəˈmɛstɪˌsaɪz)
/ (dəˈmɛstɪˌkeɪt) /
to bring or keep (wild animals or plants) under control or cultivation
to accustom to home life
to adapt to an environment: to domesticate foreign trees
Derived forms of domesticate
- domesticable, adjective
- domestication, noun
- domesticative, adjective
- domesticator, 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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