Cultivate \Cul"ti*vate\ (k?l"t?-v?t), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Cultivated (-v?`t?d); p. pr. & vb. n. Cultivating
(-v?`-t?ng).] [LL. cultivatus, p. p. of cultivare to
cultivate, fr. cultivus cultivated, fr. L. cultus, p. p. of
colere to till, cultivate. Cf. Colony.]
1. To bestow attention, care, and labor upon, with a view to
valuable returns; to till; to fertilize; as, to cultivate
soil.
[1913 Webster]
2. To direct special attention to; to devote time and thought
to; to foster; to cherish.
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Leisure . . . to cultivate general literature.
--Wordsworth.
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3. To seek the society of; to court intimacy with.
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I ever looked on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest
and best men of his age; and I loved and cultivated
him accordingly. --Burke.
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4. To improve by labor, care, or study; to impart culture to;
to civilize; to refine.
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To cultivate the wild, licentious savage. --Addison.
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The mind of man hath need to be prepared for piety
and virtue; it must be cultivated to the end.
--Tillotson.
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5. To raise or produce by tillage; to care for while growing;
as, to cultivate corn or grass.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
cultivate
v 1: foster the growth of
2: prepare for crops; "Work the soil"; "cultivate the land"
[syn: crop, work]
3: train to be discriminative in taste or judgment; "Cultivate
your musical taste"; "Train your tastebuds"; "She is well
schooled in poetry" [syn: educate, school, train, civilize,
civilise]
4: adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment;
"domesticate oats"; "tame the soil" [syn: domesticate, naturalize,
naturalise, tame]
WordNet (r) 2.0
144 Moby Thesaurus words for "cultivate":
advance, ameliorate, apprentice, approach, backset, beautify,
better, break, break in, break the ice, breed, bring up,
brown-nose, butter up, care for, carve, cherish, chisel, coddle,
condition, convert, cosset, court, courteous, cradle, crop,
cultivated, culture, cultured, cut, delve, develop, dig,
discipline, distingue, dress, drill, dry-nurse, educate, elaborate,
embellish, encourage, evolve, excite, exercise, extract, fallow,
farm, feed, fertilize, fetch up, finish, fit, fondle, force, form,
foster, further, groom, grow, harrow, harvest, hoe, house-train,
housebreak, improve, instruct, labor, lavish care on,
lick into shape, list, machine, make advances, make sensitive,
make up to, manage, mature, mill, mine, mother, mulch, nourish,
nurse, nurture, pamper, pay addresses to, pay court to, perfect,
play up to, plow, polish, polished, polite, practice, prepare,
process, produce, promote, propagate, prune, pump, put in tune,
put to school, quicken, raise, rake, ready, rear, refine, refined,
rehearse, ripen, run after, season, send to school, sensibilize,
sensitize, sharpen, shine up to, smelt, spade, spoon-feed,
stimulate, stir, suck up to, suckle, sustain, take in hand, teach,
tend, thin, thin out, till, till the soil, train, urbane, weed,
weed out, well-bred, wet-nurse, whet, woo, work, work on
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
civilise, civilize, crop, domesticate, educate, naturalise, naturalize, school, tame, train, work
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