v. [f. FERTILE + -IZE.]
1. trans. To make fertile; to enrich (the soil).
1648. W. Montagu, Miscellanea Spiritualia: or Devout Essaies, I. xi. § 1. 128. Our earth needs no rain to fall upon it, that is, no externall provocation to fertilize it, there riseth a mist out of it selfe that watereth it, to wit, our innate perversity.
1760. Derrick, Lett. (1767), I. 97. He … fertilised bogs, and cultivated barren sands.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 8. The mere wash of three great rivers, which had fertilized happier portions of Europe only to desolate and overwhelm this less-favoured land.
b. gen. To render productive. lit. and fig.
1828. Mackintosh, Sp. Ho. Comm., 3 May, Wks. 1846, III. 487. The members of the Legislature were so absurdly ignorant of the first principles of political economy, as to have attempted to exclude all the industry and capital of other countries from flowing in to enrich and fertilise their shores.
1866. Liddon, Bampt. Lect., v. (1875), 225. Intense religious conviction fertilizes intellect, and developes speculative talent, not unfrequently in the most unlearned.
1868. Peard, Water-Farming, ii. 11. The great and increasing value of many Scotch and Irish rivers naturally suggests the inquiry, ‘Can nothing be done to fertilise the vast majority of our streams?’
2. Biol. To make (an ovum, an oospore, a female individual or organ) fruitful by the introduction of the male element; to fecundate.
Chiefly Bot.; in Zoology common with reference to ova, but otherwise rare.
1854. T. Rivers, The Rose Amateur’s Guide (5 ed.), 142. If the anthers of the Moss Rose are left untouched, and it is fertilized with Rosa Gallica, interesting hybrids are the result.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iv. (1873), 79. As yet I have not found a single terrestrial animal which can fertilise itself.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., i. 8. It is a great advantage to a species that the flower should be fertilised by pollen from a different stock.
Hence Fertilized ppl. a. Fertilizing vbl. sb., also attrib. Fertilizing ppl. a.
1651. R. Child, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 34. In other places they [sea-sands] have a like fertilizing fatnesse.
1655. In Hartlib’s Legacy, 193. A rich earth for Compost worth twenty shillings a load at the least for the fertilizing of land.
1807. Crabbe, The Parish Register, III. 275.
| Unlike the Darkness of the Sky, that pours | |
| On the dry Ground its fertilizing Showers! |
1849. J. F. W. Johnston, Exper. Agric., vii. 118. Gypsum has a remarkably fertilising effect when applied to certain crops on certain soils.
1868. Peard, Water-Farming, v. 54. A tiny fish creeps from each fertilised egg, and wanders about feebly, finding shelter under the edges of stones.
1884. Athenæum, 12 Jan., 49/3. The author attributes the supply of fertilizing mud in Egypt to the White Nile.
