to be passive or unthinking; to do nothing: to lie on the beach and vegetate.
3.
Pathology. to grow, or increase by growth, as an excrescence.
Origin: 1595–1605; < Latin vegetātus (past participle of vegetāre to quicken, enliven), equivalent to veget(us) lively (orig. past participle of vegēre to give vigor) + -ātus-ate1
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
1605, "to grow as plants do," perhaps a back-formation from vegetation, or from L. vegetatus, pp. of vegetare "to enliven, to animate" (see vegetable). Sense of "to lead a dull, empty, or stagnant life" is from 1740.