vegetate
/ˈvɛdʒɪteɪt
/verb [no object]
1Live or spend a period of time in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way: if she left him alone, he’d sit in front of the television and vegetate...
- I thought I was faced with vegetating on benefits until pensionable age, but I'm now ready for a new future.
- John was vegetating and getting demotivated because of the lack of work opportunities.
- ‘I'm not sitting and vegetating, I need to get cracking,’ he said.
Synonyms
do nothing, idle, be inactive, languish, laze (around/about), lounge (around/about), loll (around/about), loaf (around/about), slouch (around/about);
go to seed, degenerate, moulder, stagnate
informal hang around/round, veg out
British informal hang about, mooch about/around, slummock
North American informal bum around, bat around/about, lollygag
2 dated (Of a plant or seed) grow; sprout: he advised that seeds be sent in a vegetating condition
2.1 [with object] Cause plants to grow in or cover (a place): the final task was to vegetate the area used to store the muck dredged from the pond...
- This area is lightly vegetated with juniper, pine, sage, and grasses.
- The Board plans to vegetate Waterfall Gully with more native trees and plants.
- Although there were abundant lakes and ponds on the islands, they would have been vegetated chiefly by bulrushes.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin vegetat- 'enlivened', from the verb vegetare, from vegetus 'active', from vegere 'be active'.
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