The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cultivate \Cul"ti*vate\ (k?l"t?-v?t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cultivated (-v?`t?d); p. pr. & vb. n. Cultivating (-v?`-t?ng).] [LL. cultivatus, p. p. of cultivare to cultivate, fr. cultivus cultivated, fr. L. cultus, p. p. of colere to till, cultivate. Cf. Colony.]
To bestow attention, care, and labor upon, with a view to valuable returns; to till; to fertilize; as, to cultivate soil.
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To direct special attention to; to devote time and thought to; to foster; to cherish.
Leisure . . . to cultivate general literature.
--Wordsworth. -
To seek the society of; to court intimacy with.
I ever looked on Lord Keppel as one of the greatest and best men of his age; and I loved and cultivated him accordingly.
--Burke. -
To improve by labor, care, or study; to impart culture to; to civilize; to refine.
To cultivate the wild, licentious savage.
--Addison.The mind of man hath need to be prepared for piety and virtue; it must be cultivated to the end.
--Tillotson. To raise or produce by tillage; to care for while growing; as, to cultivate corn or grass.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of cultivate English)
Usage examples of "cultivating".
We would play the case officer and practise the art of getting alongside them, cultivating them, recruiting them and extracting intelligence.
Sooner or later it would fall to me to dispose of the contents of the house, a job I could barely envision, a job more difficult, more preposterous, than the work of cultivating life on another planet.
Jase had been cultivating Lomax long before Wun's arrival, and Lomax was fascinated with Wun.
While circumstances were ripening my faculties, and cultivating my taste, commerce and gross relaxations were shutting his against any possibility of improvement, till, by stifling every spark of virtue in himself, he began to imagine that it no where existed.
And if she be a mother, and in the present state of women, it is a great misfortune to be prevented from discharging the duties, and cultivating the affections of one, what has she not to endure?
By way of compensation she can invest in the minds of her children by cultivating in their minds a genuine love of truth.
However, it is not yet known whether Ethiopians were cultivating these local plants before or only after the arrival of the Southwest Asian package.
It has consisted in always cultivating the best-known variety, sowing its seeds, and, when a slightly better variety chanced to appear, selecting it, and so onwards.