vegetate

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vegetatum, past participle of vegeto (“I enliven, I arouse”).

verb

1. (of a plant) To grow or sprout.
2. (of a wart etc) To spread abnormally.
3. (informal) To live or spend a period of time in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way.
   Nor indeed is it likely I shall now ever be able to do more than vegetate, for my few remaining years or months in this or some other solitude. It is literally vegetating, for I have very little locomotive powers beyond those that appertain to a cauliflower. 5 March 1804, Charlotte Smith, letter to Sarah Rose, quoted in Judith Phillips Stanton, “Introduction to Charlotte Smith’s Letters”, in The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, Bloomington, Ind., Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, published 2003, section “Friendships”, page xx