v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Vegetated p. pr. & vb. n. Vegetating. ] [ L. vegetatus, p. p. of vegetare to enliven. See Vegetable. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To grow, as plants, by nutriment imbibed by means of roots and leaves; to start into growth; to sprout; to germinate. [ 1913 Webster ]

See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life dissolving vegetate again. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: To lead a life too low for an animate creature; to do nothing but eat and grow. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

Persons who . . . would have vegetated stupidly in the places where fortune had fixed them. Jeffrey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Med.) To grow exuberantly; to produce fleshy or warty outgrowths; as, a vegetating papule. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. végétation, L. vegetatio an enlivening. See Vegetable. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. The act or process of vegetating, or growing as a plant does; vegetable growth. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The sum of vegetable life; vegetables or plants in general; as, luxuriant vegetation. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Med.) An exuberant morbid outgrowth upon any part, especially upon the valves of the heart. [ 1913 Webster ]

Vegetation of salts (Old Chem.), a crystalline growth of an arborescent form. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. végétatif. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Growing, or having the power of growing, as plants; capable of vegetating. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Having the power to produce growth in plants; as, the vegetative properties of soil. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Biol.) Having relation to growth or nutrition; partaking of simple growth and enlargement of the systems of nutrition, apart from the sensorial or distinctively animal functions; vegetal. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Veg"e*ta*tive*ly, adv. -- Veg"e*ta*tive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]