Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To cause to feel comfortable at home; make domestic.
- transitive verb To adopt or make fit for domestic use or life.
- transitive verb To train or adapt (an animal or plant) to live in a human environment and be of use to humans.
- transitive verb To introduce and accustom (an animal or plant) into another region; naturalize.
- noun A plant or animal that has been adapted to live in a human environment.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make domestic; accustom to remain much at home: as, to
domesticate one's self. - To make an inmate of a household; associate in family life; hence, to make intimate or cause to become familiar, as if at home.
- To convert to domestic uses, as wild animals or plants; tame or bring under control or cultivation; reclaim from a state of nature.
- To live much at home; lead a quiet home life; become a member of a family circle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To make domestic; to habituate to home life.
- transitive verb To cause to be, as it were, of one's family or country.
- transitive verb To tame or reclaim from a wild state
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To make
domestic . - verb transitive To make
fit for domesticlife . - verb transitive To
adapt to live withhumans . - verb intransitive To
adapt to live withhumans . - verb transitive To make a legal
instrument recognized and enforceable in ajurisdiction foreign to the one in which the instrument was originally issued or created. - noun An
animal orplant that has been domesticated.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment
- verb make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans
- verb overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Despite its flaws, the rabbit is comparatively easy to domesticate, which is one reason people have been particularly eager over the past year, the Year of the Tiger, to buy bunnies.
In China, Bunnies Are Multiplying Like Rabbits as Their Year Nears Laurie Burkitt 2011
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Jane Simonsen, in her study of attempts to "domesticate" Native American women, writes that "implicit in this condemnation of gossip and transience is the suggestion that isolating women in their homes would keep them from speaking out in tribal councils, preserving rituals and stories, and maintaining kinship ties."
"Make It Yourself": Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890-1930 2006
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Debates about translation have been raging since the Romans, and, crudely, they all come down to the same decision: whether to "domesticate" the translation or to "foreignise" it.
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In theory, this could be a smart strategic move but it is likely to "domesticate" Julian Assange; running such an NGO would require too many boring meetings with potential funders many of whom have already been alienated by the organisation and a nine-to-five office routine - the exact opposite of the glamorous nomadic lifestyle that the founder of WikiLeaks has become famous for.
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The history of otaku culture is one of adaptation - of how to "domesticate" American culture.
Anime Nano! 2010
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The history of otaku culture is one of adaptation - of how to "domesticate" American culture.
Anime Nano! 2010
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Indeed, there are those who believe that one of the main reasons for the creation of the Fayyad government is to emasculate and "domesticate" Fatah.
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Transnationalists think that courts can "domesticate" international law (make it part of our law), whereas nationalists think that only the political branches can.
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It's believed that the Botai people of modern-day Kazakhstan were the first to domesticate the horse some 5,000 years ago.
Tracking Equine Evolution Mark Yost 2011
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They hope to domesticate his moral challenge in order to protect their own ambition.
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