as in to cultivate
to change (a wild animal or plant) over time to make it more suited to life with or use by humans
Humans domesticated wolves to produce man's best friend.
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Recent Examples of domesticate
Dogs were domesticated from grey wolves between 32,000 and 11,000 years ago, towards the end of the most recent ice age.
—
Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 25 Mar. 2026
Appreciative of these qualities, humans have domesticated Cucumis sativus and traded it throughout the world, with the fruit’s coolness becoming another, if metaphorical, tendril.
—Andrés Muedano, JSTOR Daily, 25 Mar. 2026
That means that winemakers across what is now France must have switched from domesticating wild grapes to propagating them directly—that is, cloning grapevines by taking cuttings of the plants to start new groves.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 24 Mar. 2026
The dark joke on both sides of the record is that fascism wasn’t defeated in World War II, only domesticated.
—Andrew Katzenstein, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for domesticate
Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 25 Mar. 2026
Appreciative of these qualities, humans have domesticated Cucumis sativus and traded it throughout the world, with the fruit’s coolness becoming another, if metaphorical, tendril.
—Andrés Muedano, JSTOR Daily, 25 Mar. 2026
That means that winemakers across what is now France must have switched from domesticating wild grapes to propagating them directly—that is, cloning grapevines by taking cuttings of the plants to start new groves.
—Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 24 Mar. 2026
The dark joke on both sides of the record is that fascism wasn’t defeated in World War II, only domesticated.
—Andrew Katzenstein, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for domesticate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for domesticate
Verb
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Every announcement, social media post or media placement is an opportunity to reinforce the brand’s purpose, cultivate trust and invite engagement.—
Terri Liebler,
Rolling Stone,
9 Apr. 2026
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While some of the trees that produce the resin are cultivated, the vast majority grow in the wild.—
Scott Horsley,
NPR,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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It’s trained future restaurateurs.—
Timothy DePeugh,
Charlotte Observer,
8 Apr. 2026
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One Limbic chatbot, called Limbic Care, is trained on cognitive behavioral therapy skills and provides direct patient support.—
Rhitu Chatterjee,
NPR,
7 Apr. 2026
Verb
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While easy to propagate from a cutting, rosemary varies in hardiness.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
6 Apr. 2026
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Many plants that would normally struggle to propagate in the local soil are grown through grafting, a process in which the root of one plant is used to grow another.—
Alaina Chou,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
6 Apr. 2026
Verb
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When, in the early nineteen-hundreds, Gibson developed the F-style flat-back, inspired by the Stradivarius violin, the idea was to produce a louder instrument that could be used for classical as well as folk music, while being assembly-line-friendly.—
Tim Parks,
New Yorker,
11 Apr. 2026
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Orbán has used his party's current supermajority in Hungarian parliament to undermine the independence of the judiciary, crack down on independent media, demonize migrants and discriminate against LGBTQ people, Human Rights Watch has said.—
Emmet Lyons,
CBS News,
11 Apr. 2026
Verb
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NewSubstance utilizes over 20 years of experience to forge public art from a variety of immense canvases including a North Sea oil rig, Baku’s Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan, and even the night sky above the Secret Garden Party in Cambridge, England.—
Niyaz Pirani,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Apr. 2026
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By utilizing an existing containment structure, the project was able to establish a testing environment without constructing an entirely new shell.—
Aman Tripathi,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The bowl-back, thanks to its shape, produces a greater number of high partial harmonics that give it a distinctive, delicate tone preferred by most players of classical music.—
Tim Parks,
New Yorker,
11 Apr. 2026
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The Dolby audience repeatedly cheered as Jackson, Smith and Ladd shared backstage stories about the series, one of numerous TV hits developed and produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Apr. 2026
Verb
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His contention is that the people who inhabit the paintings are breathing a specific spiritual atmosphere, bred by the company that Vermeer kept.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
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Affordability issues explain part of the apprehension; increasingly, young people have been priced out of the housing market, breeding a resentment that erodes faith in institutions — and in capitalism itself.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
13 Apr. 2026
Verb
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A lot of people were circling this to try to adapt it.—
Jennifer Wilson,
New Yorker,
12 Apr. 2026
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The star adds that finding new, innovative ways to adapt her songs for the stage has been one of her favorite parts of touring in general.—
Christian Allaire,
Vogue,
12 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Domesticate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/domesticate. Accessed 14 Apr. 2026.
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