1. Of or pertaining to vegetables, or the vegetable kingdom; of the
nature of a vegetable; vegetable.
All creatures vegetal, sensible, and rational.
Burton.
2. (Biol.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, that class of vital
phenomena, such as digestion, absorption, assimilation, secretion,
excretion, circulation, generation, etc., which are common to plants
and animals, in distinction from sensation and volition, which are
peculiar to animals.
Veg"e*tal, n. [F.] A vegetable. [R.] B. Jonson.
Veg`e*tal"i*ty (?), n. 1. The quality or state of being vegetal, or
vegetable. [R.]
2. (Biol.) The quality or state of being vegetal, or exhibiting those
physiological phenomena which are common to plants and animals. See
Vegetal, a., 2.
Veg`e*ta"ri*an (?), n. One who holds that vegetables and fruits are the
only proper food for man. Strict vegetarians eat no meat, eggs, or
milk.
Veg`e*ta"ri*an, a. Of or pertaining to vegetarianism; as, a vegetarian
diet.
Veg`e*ta"ri*an*ism (?), n. The theory or practice of living upon
vegetables and fruits.
Veg"e*tate (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Vegetated (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Vegetating.] [L. vegetatus, p. p. of vegetare to enliven. See
Vegetable.]
1. To grow, as plants, by nutriment imbibed by means of roots and
leaves; to start into growth; to sprout; to germinate.
See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again.
Pope.
2. Fig.: To lead a live too low for an animate creature; to do nothing
but eat and grow. Cowper.
Persons who . . . would have vegetated stupidly in the places where
fortune had fixed them.
Jeffrey.
3. (Med.) To grow exuberantly; to produce fleshy or warty outgrowths;
as, a vegetating papule.
Veg`e*ta"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. végétation, L. vegetatio an enlivening.
See Vegetable.]
1. The act or process of vegetating, or growing as a plant does;
vegetable growth.
2. The sum of vegetable life; vegetables or plants in general; as,
luxuriant vegetation.
3. (Med.) An exuberant morbid outgrowth upon any part, especially upon
the valves of the heart.
Vegetation of salts (Old Chem.), a crystalline growth of an arborescent
form.