domesticate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans

   The horse was domesticated a long time ago

2. 2
   verb

   adapt (a wild plant or unclaimed land) to the environment

   domesticate oats

3. 3
   verb

   To make (more) fit for domestic life.

   "To answer your question, Tai's fine. She mostly just smokes socially these days." "You're domesticating her!" "We're domesticating each other. The other day I found myself reading a home decorating blog."

4. 4
   verb

   To adapt to live with humans.

   The Russians claim to have successfully domesticated foxes.

5. 5
   verb

   overcome the wildness of

6. 6
   verb

   To make domestic.

7. 7
   verb

   To make a legal instrument recognized and enforceable in a jurisdiction foreign to the one in which the instrument was originally issued or created.

8. 8
   verb

   To amend the elements of a text to fit local culture.

Etymology

First attested in 1620; either borrowed from Middle French domestiquer (Modern French domestiquer) or directly from Medieval Latin domesticātus, perfect passive participle of domesticō (“to domesticate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, domestic + -ate.