fertilizev.
/ˈfəːtᵻlʌɪz/, /ˈfəːtl̩ʌɪz/, U.S. /ˈfərdəˌlaɪz/ 1.
a. transitive. To make fertile; to enrich (the soil).
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1648 W. Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia i. xi. §1. 128 Our earth needs no rain to fall upon it..to fertilize it.
1760 S. Derrick Lett. (1767) I. 97 He..fertilised bogs, and cultivated barren sands.
1860 J. L. Motley Hist. Netherlands (1868) I. i. 8 Three great rivers which had fertilized happier portions of Europe.
b. gen. To render productive. literal and figurative.
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1828 J. Mackintosh Speech in Commons 2 May in Wks. (1846) III. 487 The members of the Legislature..attempted to exclude all the industry..of other countries from flowing in to enrich and fertilise their shores.
1866 H. P. Liddon Bampton Lect. (1875) v. 225 Intense religious conviction fertilizes intellect.
1868 W. Peard Pract. Water-farming ii. 11 Can nothing be done to fertilise the vast majority of our streams?
2. Biology. To make (an ovum, an oospore, a female individual or organ) fruitful by the introduction of the male element; to fecundate.Chiefly Botany; in Zoology common with reference to ova, but otherwise rare.
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1856 ‘E. S. Delamer’ Flower Garden 145 If..the Moss Rose..is fertilized with Rosa Gallica, interesting hybrids are the result.
1872 C. Darwin Origin of Species (ed. 6) iv. 79 I have not found a single terrestrial animal which can fertilize itself.
1879 J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. i. 8 It is a great advantage..that the flower should be fertilised by pollen from a different stock.
Derivatives
ˈfertilized adj.
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1868 W. Peard Pract. Water-farming v. 54 A tiny fish creeps from each fertilised egg.
ˈfertilizing n. (also attributive)
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > preparation of land or soil > fertilizing or manuring > [noun]
gooding1473
manuring1577
battling1600
fatting1600
fertilage1610
fertilizing1655
laetation1664
mending1707
top-dressing1744
boning1795
caprification1836
manurance1854
management1877
soil amendment1915
side dressing1950
fertigation1967
1655 G. Plats in S. Hartlib Legacy (ed. 3) 193 A rich earth for Compost worth twenty shillings a load at the least for the fertilizing of land.
ˈfertilizing adj.
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1651 R. Child Large Let. in S. Hartlib Legacie 45 In other places they have a like fertilizing fatnesse.
1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. iii, in Poems 106 Fertilizing Showers.
1849 J. F. W. Johnston Exper. Agric. vii. 118 Gypsum has a remarkably fertilising effect when applied to certain crops on certain soils.
1884 Athenæum 12 Jan. 49/3 The author attributes the supply of fertilizing mud in Egypt to the White Nile.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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