as in relaxing
to spend time doing things that do not require much thought or effort; to be very lazy or inactive
I just spent the weekend vegetating at home. I'm worried that after I retire I'll just sit at home, watch TV, and vegetate.
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as in dormant
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Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vegetating
Verb
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The two, three, and even four-bedroom residences are spacious, feature mature olive trees, relaxing grounds, and gourmet kitchens.—
Michael Goldstein,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025 -
Skip the sheep-counting and cup of chamomile, and luxuriate in the sleep-inducing blend of calming lavender oil, soothing balsam resin, moisturizing sweet almond oil, and relaxing magnesium salt flakes instead.—
Sophia Panych,
Allure,
16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Often when faced with a trauma, a redwood will swell a bank of dormant buds and woody tissue to create burls.—
Greg Sullivan,
AFAR Media,
15 Sep. 2025
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Note that plants go dormant in areas that experience hard freezes.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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CFMoto is not resting on its laurels, having just recently revealed its first-ever inline-four sports motorcycle.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
12 Sep. 2025
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The visible-light photo, taken by one of Maxar Technologies' WorldView Legion satellites orbiting at an altitude of 312 miles (518 kilometers), shows what appears to be a fleet of fighter jets resting on the ramp adjacent to the runway surrounded by brown, arid soil.—
Tereza Pultarova,
Space.com,
11 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Opportunity cost builds in the background while your capital sits idle.—
Gregory Clifford,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
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The expectation is that the senior will be fully healthy following LSU’s idle week.—
Brian Hamilton,
New York Times,
15 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Understand the difference between roosts, feeds, and loafing spots.—
Alex Robinson,
Outdoor Life,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Throughout most of modern history, it was thought that prudent government debt management involved bringing down the ratio of debt to GDP during quiescent periods of growth in order to store fiscal ammunition for the next crisis.—
Kenneth S. Rogoff,
Foreign Affairs,
19 Aug. 2025
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Khanna is one of a number of progressive congressional Democrats encouraged by the party to appear in red-district town halls in an attempt to rebut impressions that the party is quiescent in the face of Trump’s onslaught.—
Andrew Cockburn,
Harpers Magazine,
16 July 2025
Verb
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And poor, engine‑damaging quality or not, the ersatz aviation fuel had to work only once to get a kamikaze plane up and away to hit one of the enemy warships now lazing about in the offing around the Home Islands, often close enough to be spotted from shore with the naked eye.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The key lies in understanding the difference between unproductive friction (the logistical hurdles that bog students down) and productive friction (the cognitive struggle that is essential for building real knowledge and skills).—
Dave Tucker,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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Pick one seemingly unproductive attention-training activity and practice it consistently.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
11 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Vegetating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vegetating. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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