Vĕġ'e-tāte, v. i.
v. i. [imp. & p. p. VEGETATED; p. pr. & vb. n. VEGETATING.] [Lat. vegetare, vegetatum, to enliven, from vegetus, enlivened, animated; It. vegetare, Sp., Pg., & Pr. vegetar, Fr. végéter. See VEGETE.]
Sense 1. To grow, as plants; to grow and be enlarged by nutriment imbibed by means of roots and leaves; to sprout; to germinate.
See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again. Pope.
Sense 2. Hence, figuratively, to lead a life too low for an animate creature; to do nothing but eat and grow. “Persons who in ordinary times would have vegetated stupidly in the places where fortune had fixed them.” Jeffrey.