Definition

Verb (transitive): 1. To tame (an animal); to adapt (an animal or plant) to life in close association with and to the advantage of humans. This involves overcoming its wildness and making it docile, tractable, and useful for human purposes such as companionship, labor, or food.

Usage and Examples

• The primary goal of early humans was to domesticate wild wolves, a process that eventually led to the creation of dogs.
• It took centuries to successfully domesticate wild grains like teosinte into modern corn.
• While some birds can be tamed, they are very difficult to fully domesticate for life in a household.

Advanced Usage and Notes

• The term is often used in biological, anthropological, and historical contexts to describe a long-term genetic and behavioral adaptation process across generations, not just the taming of an individual animal.
• It can be used figuratively to describe making something (e.g., a concept, a technology, or even a person's behavior) more orderly, manageable, or suited to a conventional environment.
  • Example: The new software update aims to domesticate the chaotic user interface, making it more intuitive for the average person.

Variants and Related Words

• Domestic (adjective): Of or relating to the home, household, or family; tame, not wild.
• Domestication (noun): The process of domesticating.
• Tame (verb): To make an animal not wild or dangerous. (Often used for individual animals, whereas "domesticate" implies a species-level change).
• Reclaim (verb): To bring (something, such as a falcon) back to a desired state of training or usefulness.

Synonyms

Tame, break in, train, gentle, master, cultivate (for plants).

Antonyms

Wild, untame, feralize.

Verb

1. overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable
   • He tames lions for the circus
   • reclaim falcons