Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of plants.
  • adjective Relating to growth rather than to sexual reproduction; vegetative.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining, or relating to a plant or plants; having the characteristics or nature of a vegetable; vegetable.
  • Of or pertaining to the series of vital phenomena common to plants and animals—namely, digestion and nutritive assimilation, growth, absorption, secretion, excretion, circulation, respiration, and generation, as contradistinguished from sensation and volition, which are peculiar to animals.
  • noun A plant; a vegetable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to vegetables, or the vegetable kingdom; of the nature of a vegetable; vegetable.
  • adjective (Biol.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, that class of vital phenomena, such as digestion, absorption, assimilation, secretion, excretion, circulation, generation, etc., which are common to plants and animals, in distinction from sensation and volition, which are peculiar to animals.
  • noun rare A vegetable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective pertaining to vegetables or other plants (as opposed to animal)
  • adjective wine a grassy, herbaceous taste
  • noun obsolete Any vegetable organism.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of reproduction) characterized by asexual processes
  • adjective composed of vegetation or plants

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin vegetālis, from Latin vegetāre, to enliven; see vegetable.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • c1400 in Ashm. Theatr. Chem. Brit. (1652) 211 Wyth vygital moyster and of the red Grap.

    May 15, 2008

  • ...vegetal spring stirrings...

    - Peter Reading, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977

    June 26, 2008