pollinate

verb

pol·li·nate | \ ˈpä-lə-ˌnāt

pollinated; pollinating

Definition of pollinate

transitive verb

1 : to carry out the pollination of

2 : to mark or smudge with pollen

Examples of pollinate in a Sentence

The plants are pollinated by bees.

Recent Examples on the Web

This is creating a mismatch between when a plant flowers and when insects like bees are around to pollinate them. — Umair Irfan, Vox, "Winters are warming faster than summers. These US cities could lose weeks of freezing days by 2050.," 21 Dec. 2018 Here are some inspiring voices from Indian Country with which to pollinate your Twitter and Instagram feeds. — Rebecca Nagle, Teen Vogue, "Invisibility is the Modern Form of Racism Against Native Americans," 23 Oct. 2018 And contrary to popular belief, wasps do pollinate plants, just not to the same extent that bees do. — Rebecca Straus, Good Housekeeping, "6 Ways to Keep Wasps Away From You," 26 July 2018 Scientists released unsettling news some years ago about the decline of bees, which pollinate most of the crop species that feed the world. — Staff Report, chicagotribune.com, "Shout Out: Lidia Andronic is a Harwood Heights beekeeper looking out for our pollinators," 6 July 2018 The company said that bees pollinate a third of the world’s crops, and bees also help make a third of its flavors like mango and strawberry. — Natalie Dreier, ajc, "Häagen Dazs gives away free ice cream cones today," 8 May 2018 There are ones that live in the water and look passive, but pull animals toward them to help pollinate them. — Angela Chen, The Verge, "The ‘plant messiah’ on what it takes to save the world’s rarest species," 30 Mar. 2018 On top of that, grass started pollinating at the same time. — Maureen Langley, Post-Tribune, "Experts: Indiana's allergy season worse than usual this year," 3 July 2018 The tractor-trailers that carry hives across the country to pollinate crops are typically moving about seven million bees at a time. — New York Times, "With a Sniff and a Signal, These Dogs Hunt Down Threats to Bees," 3 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pollinate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.