proliferatev.
/prəˈlɪfəreɪt/, U.S. /prəˈlɪfəˌreɪt/, /proʊˈlɪfəˌreɪt/ 1. Biology and Medicine.
a. intransitive. To undergo proliferation; to increase or grow, esp. by cell division.In quot. 1904 figurative.
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1866 [see proliferating adj. at Derivatives].
1869 Lancet 19 June 847/2 Its cells proliferate in some forms of keratitis.
1884 Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. 988 The materials..being supplied by the mesoblast which proliferates into the median fin-fold.
1904 W. James in Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 1 568 That one moment of it [sc. Experience] proliferates into the next by transitions which..continue the experiential tissue, can not..be denied.
1962 T. G. Hiebert Abbrev. Basic Med. Physiol. (ed. 4) v. vii. 306 Oogenesis begins when the germinal epithelium of the ovary proliferates, forming an oogonium.
1989 B. Alberts et al. Molecular Biol. Cell (ed. 2) xvii. 987 When a tissue is injured, the fibroblasts nearby migrate into the wound, proliferate, and produce large amounts of collagenous matrix.
2002 Ladies' Home Jrnl. July 82/1 All cancers are the result of a mutant cell that's allowed to proliferate by the immune system.
b. transitive. To produce or form (cells) by proliferation.
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1885 Proc. Royal Soc. 39 246 The mesoblastic plates..proliferate cells at their edge.
1967 Arch. Neurol. (Chicago) 16 131/1 Microglia were proliferated, and an occasional neuron was chromatolyzed in lumbosacral anterior horns.
1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) v. 127 The epithelial layer on the outer side of the somite disintegrates and proliferates mesenchymal cells.
2.
a. intransitive. Originally: (Zoology, of hydrozoans and certain other invertebrates) to produce sexual zooids. Later more widely: to produce new individuals; to give rise to an increasing number of offspring, to reproduce prolifically.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > colony or compound organism > [verb (intransitive)] > reproduce by budding
proliferate1890
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [verb (intransitive)] > others
pullulate1777
swarm1864
proliferate1890
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > types of reproduction > [verb (transitive)] > others
proliferate1890
1878 F. J. Bell & E. R. Lankester tr. C. Gegenbaur Elements Compar. Anat. §74. 95 The proliferating persons [Ger. Die proliferirenden Personen] of a colony [of polyps] present various degrees of degeneration.]
1890 Cent. Dict. Proliferate,..2. To generate or reproduce by the act of proliferation; bear generative persons or zoöids, as distinguished from nutritive persons, as is the usual process in the hydroid polyps.
1926 Socialist Rev. Apr. 33 Those who..have neither the time to care for their children's moral well-being, nor the space which is necessary to ensure their physical welfare, proliferate, unchecked.
1955 Sci. Amer. May 32/3 Normal man carries throughout life a host of microbes which now and then start proliferating and cause disease.
1983 Paleobiology 9 245/2 Zooid rows continue to proliferate throughout growth [sc. in a bryozoan], allowing branches to widen proximal to a bifurcation.
1990 Countryside Winter 37/3 The goats proliferated, and by 1980 the population within the park numbered more than 1,000.
2003 Washington Post 17 July (Home ed.) a4/1 That suggests the anthrax bacteria were able to fly under the radar of his immune system and proliferate.
b. intransitive. gen. To increase rapidly in number; to become numerous or widespread.
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the world > relative properties > quantity > increase in quantity, amount, or degree > [verb (intransitive)] > in amount, number, or frequency
waxc897
increasec1315
multiplyc1330
spawnc1400
breed1600
propagate1653
proliferate1915
1915 Stevens Point (Wisconsin) Daily Jrnl. 4 Dec. [He] was a Copt, one of the same race that flourished in the days of Rameses and proliferated under the whip.
1934 A. Huxley Beyond Mexique Bay 249 Then, nightmarishly proliferating, appear the Pittsburgs and Birminghams, the Osakas and Calcuttas of this unhappy world.
1961 Daily Tel. 19 Jan. 12/3 A quality which becomes more and more indispensable as international matches proliferate.
1987 R. Berthoud Life of Henry Moore iv. 79 His feelings for her had changed from affection to something more intense. Drawings of her proliferated in his sketchbook.
3. transitive. To produce or generate in large quantities; to cause to become numerous or widespread.In later use esp. with reference to nuclear weapons; cf. proliferation n. 3.
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the world > existence and causation > creation > [verb (transitive)] > produce or bring forth > with ease, speed, or success, or in large quantities
whip1611
to work off1653
to hit off1700
dispatchc1710
to throw off1724
to run off1759
to turn off1825
to turn out1847
to run out1872
to churn out1912
proliferate1912
slug1925
whomp1955
gurgitate1963
society > armed hostility > military equipment > arming or equipping with weapons > arm or equip [verb (transitive)] > proliferate (arms)
proliferate1912
1912 H. G. Wells Marriage iii. iv. 501 He proliferated titles for a time, and settled at last on ‘From Realism to Reality’.
1958 J. Ehrman Cabinet Government & War, 1890–1940 iv. 111 They..proliferated a chain of committees and sub-committees, so that a network of interDepartmental advisory bodies covered..the field of production and supply.
1961 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) Oct. 12 1/1 We are going to live through a long period of constant tension with these dangerous (thermo-nuclear) weapons which will be proliferated.
2004 Post & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) (Nexis) 21 Sept. 1 b It is the height of arrogance to conduct a shipment like this while demanding other nations refrain from proliferating nuclear weapons materials and technologies.
Derivatives
proˈliferated adj. that has undergone proliferation; produced by proliferation.
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1872 G. R. Cutter tr. H. Frey Microscope & Microsc. Technol. xxi. 539 A fresh corpus luteum with the proliferated [Ger. gewucherten] cell-layer of the inner surface.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. viii. 179 The ‘curd’ seen in cauliflower or broccoli is a large proliferated inflorescence developed as a storage organ in the first year of this biennial plant.
1991 Acta Neuropathologica 81 527/1 The subpial amyloid deposits were occasionally surrounded by proliferated GFAP-immunoreactive astrocytes.
proˈliferating adj. that is undergoing proliferation.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > [adjective] > begotten
akennedeOE
bikenneda1250
gottena1382
begottenc1384
engenderedc1425
bredc1440
procreate1449
propagate1543
procreated1552
progenerate1610
seminal1646
begot1691
proliferating1866
parented1904
1866 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 156 135 We see this mass giving most of its proliferating tissue to the formation of the mandibular pier.
1967 Economist 25 Feb. 698/2 The case for..going non-nuclear would become more persuasive after the signing of the treaty than it would in a treatyless, proliferating world.
1986 A. Massie Colette i. 18 The Third Republic, with its..two million independent shopkeepers, its proliferating restaurants, was the most French of French régimes.
2003 New Scientist 29 Mar. 32/2 The ‘progress zone’ [is] a mass of rapidly proliferating but undifferentiated cells that sits just behind the tip of the limb bud.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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