domesticate
/dəˈmɛstɪkeɪt
/verb [with object]
1Tame (an animal) and keep it as a pet or on a farm: mammals were first domesticated for their milk...
- Rats aren't domesticated animals so they have to scurry to find where their food is.
- Attempts to tame and domesticate these creatures were met with mixed results, and even though some had proven docile enough to use as mounts, there was always the slight element of unpredictability about them.
- With the advent of farming in the Neolithic, a number of animal species were domesticated, starting with sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle.
Synonyms
tame, train, break in, gentle;
master, subdue, subjugate, bring to heel;
British house-train
tame, tamed, pet, domestic, broken-in;
British house-trained;
North American housebroken
1.1Cultivate (a plant) for food: the potato was first domesticated on Andean slopes...
- The mounds and middens are significant and long-lived disturbed areas, highly congenial to the weedy species ancestral to the earliest cultivated and domesticated food plants.
- Food crops in any society are crops domesticated and cultivated for consumption.
- Cultivated corn was domesticated more than 6,000 years ago.
Synonyms
cultivate, raise, rear;
naturalize, establish, acclimatize, habituate, assimilate;
North American acclimate
naturalized, acclimatized, habituated;
cultivated
1.2 humorous Make (someone) fond of and good at home life and the tasks that it involves: you’ve quite domesticated him...
- Mind you, I haven't read a romance book in a long time and perhaps these days there are sub-genres which involve domesticated men.
- In fact, you in the UK are the most domesticated people on earth.
- I have the house to myself for the next week, and those of you who know me will know that I'm hardly the most domesticated person.
Synonyms
housewifely, stay-at-home, home-loving, homely
British informal house-trained
North American informal housebroken
Derivatives
domesticable
/ adjective ...- Europe and Aisa were on an east-west axis, so any animals that proved domesticable in the east could be moved to the west or vice versa, because there was little difference in sunlight hours or climate.
- It was because there were domesticable crops and animals in Euroasia, and barely any across the Pacific.
- Horses were perfect domesticable animals with dominance hierarchies, a tolerance for other species and herding instincts.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from medieval Latin domesticat- 'domesticated', from the verb domesticare, from Latin domesticus 'belonging to the house' (see domestic).