English Dictionary

FERTILISE

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fertilise mean? 

FERTILISE (verb)
  The verb FERTILISE has 3 senses:

1. make fertile or productiveplay

2. provide with fertilizers or add nutrients toplay

3. introduce semen into (a female)play

  Familiarity information: FERTILISE used as a verb is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


FERTILISE (verb)

 Conjugation: 
Present simple: I / you / we / they fertilise  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation ... he / she / it fertilises  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past simple: fertilised  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past participle: fertilised  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
-ing form: fertilising  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation


Sense 1

Meaning:

Make fertile or productive

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

fecundate; fertilise; fertilize

Context example:

The course fertilized her imagination

Hypernyms (to "fertilise" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something


Sense 2

Meaning:

Provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

feed; fertilise; fertilize

Context example:

We should fertilize soil if we want to grow healthy plants

Hypernyms (to "fertilise" is one way to...):

enrich (make better or improve in quality)

Domain category:

agriculture; farming; husbandry (the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fertilise"):

nitrify (treat (soil) with nitrates)

dung (fertilize or dress with dung)

topdress (scatter manure or fertilizer over (land))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something


Sense 3

Meaning:

Introduce semen into (a female)

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

fecundate; fertilise; fertilize; inseminate

Hypernyms (to "fertilise" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fertilise"):

stratify (render fertile and preserve by placing between layers of earth or sand)

bang up; impregnate; knock up; prang up (make pregnant)

impregnate (fertilize and cause to grow)

cross-fertilise; cross-fertilize (cause to undergo cross-fertilization)

cross-pollinate; pollenate; pollinate (fertilize by transfering pollen)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody


 Context examples 


Once a mammalian egg has been fertilised by a sperm, it divides multiple times to generate a small, free-floating ball comprising three types of stem cells.

(Scientists generate key life event in artificial mouse ‘embryo’ created from stem cells, University of Cambridge)

They fertilise in the gut and develop into another parasite form that can then productively infect that mosquito.

(New way to stop falciparum malaria transmission, SciDev.Net)

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"All cats love fish but hate to get their paws wet." (English proverb)

"After every darkness is light." (Afghanistan proverb)

"However much fruit a tree gives, it humbles its head that much more." (Armenian proverb)

"A crazy father and mother make sensible children." (Corsican proverb)



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