Domesticate
[də'mestɪkeɪt] or [də'mɛstɪket]
Definition
(verb.) make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans; 'The horse was domesticated a long time ago'; 'The wolf was tamed and evolved into the house dog'.
(verb.) overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable; 'He tames lions for the circus'; 'reclaim falcons'.
(verb.) adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment; 'domesticate oats'; 'tame the soil'.
Checked by Barlow--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) To make domestic; to habituate to home life; as, to domesticate one's self.
(a.) To cause to be, as it were, of one's family or country; as, to domesticate a foreign custom or word.
(a.) To tame or reclaim from a wild state; as, to domesticate wild animals; to domesticate a plant.
Typed by Hannah
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Make domestic, accustom to keep at home.[2]. Tame, attach to the house.
Typed by Eliza
Examples
- It became necessary therefore, that for a time I should domesticate myself at Rome. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Could we domesticate a cub of this wild beast, and not fear its growth and maturity? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- They had no properly domesticated animals at all. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The Neolithic man had domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- This does not occur, or only in a very slight degree, with our domesticated productions, which have long been exposed to fluctuating conditions. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- It was never domesticated. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Whether they tamed and domesticated the horse is still an open question. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- That which was wild had become domesticated; regular crops took the place of haphazard gleanings from brake or prairie; the possibility of electrical starvation was forever left behind. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- He th ought that by collecting all facts that bore on the variation of plants and animals, wild or domesticated, light might be thrown on the whole subjec t. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The direct actionists are a warning to the Socialist Party that its tactics and its program are not adequate to domesticating the deepest unrest of labor. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Our choice, it seems to me, lies between a blind push and a deliberate leadership, between thwarting movements until they master us, and domesticating them until they are answered. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Typist: Stanley