vegetate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to live in a passive, monotonous, or mentally inactive way

   He refused to vegetate in front of the television all weekend.

2. 2
   verb

   biology: to grow or develop like a plant, especially without sexual reproduction

   The fungus can vegetate rapidly in warm, damp soil.

From Latin vegetare, 'to enliven or animate,' through its participial stem vegetat-, ultimately related to vegetus, 'lively.' Botanical use narrowed it to plantlike growth; the figurative sense ironically describes a person existing passively with little mental activity.

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