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cultivate

verb
KUL-ti-vayt/ˈkʌltɪveɪt/

Formscultivates, cultivating, cultivated

3 meanings of cultivate

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To grow plants, particularly crops, by preparing the land and tending them as they develop.

    Local farmers cultivate wheat across thousands of acres in the valley.

    They have cultivated olive trees on these hills for generations.

    Similargrow, raise, farm, produce

    Note

    Latin farming lies underneath: the word comes through Medieval Latin cultivātus from colō, "till, cultivate", traced back to a root meaning "to move". Its object can be the crop or the ground. Farmers cultivate maize, and in H. Rider Haggard's Finished (1917) people try to cultivate the rich land. The plants need not be crops at all: mushrooms raised from wild spores are cultivated too.

  2. 2
    verbfigurativelytransitive
    To nurture, foster, or develop something such as a skill, quality, or relationship through deliberate care.

    She worked for years to cultivate a reputation for honesty.

    Diplomats cultivate relationships with foreign officials long before negotiations begin.

    Similarfoster, develop, nurture, build, establish

    Oppositeneglect

    Note

    The figurative crop may be a quality, a style or a person. In Polidori's The Vampyre (1819) a young man cultivates his imagination more than his judgment. Claudia La Rocco's dance review has a choreographer cultivating warp-speed delivery. With a person as object the verb leans toward courting favor, as in Mark Landler's 2021 report that Trump had cultivated Mr. Johnson. The care is deliberate, as in the farming sense, but its aim may be advantage.

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To turn or stir the soil to prepare it for planting, or to control weeds growing between crop rows.

    The farmer cultivated the field thoroughly before the spring planting.

    Tractors cultivate the rows to uproot weeds without harming the crops.

    Similartill, plow, work

Practice

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Origin

From Medieval Latin cultivātus, from cultivō ("to till, cultivate") and cultīvus ("tilled"), which trace back to Latin colō ("to till, cultivate") and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷel- ("to move; to turn around"). Cognates include Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō) and Sanskrit चरति (cárati).