▪ I. † ˈpopulate, ppl. a. Obs. exc. poet.
[ad. late L. or early med.L. populāt-us, pa. pple. of populāre (a 800) to inhabit (Du Cange).]
Peopled; = populated ppl. a.2 (Const. as pa. pple.)
| 1574 Hellowes Guenara's Fam. Ep. (1577) 376 The countrie of Caldea..the Region after the floud first inhabited and populate. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 42 The kingdome is much populate. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. i. iii. 47 In a place so populate. |
▪ II. † ˈpopulate, v.1 Obs. rare.
[f. L. populārī, -āre to lay waste, ravage, plunder + -ate3.]
trans. To lay waste, ravage, devastate, destroy. Hence † ˈpopulated ppl. a.1
| 1552 Huloet, Populate or conquere. Loke in Conquere, waist. 1570 Levins Manip. 41/1 To Populate, populari. 1601 W. Watson Import. Consid. (1831) 23 To bring in the Spaniard to populate, waste, and destroy this whole Isle. 1747 Gentl. Mag. XVII. 242/2 Nor pines it [the rose] languid to the Sirian blaze, With flaccid leaves, and populated breath. |
▪ III. populate, v.2
(ˈpɒpjʊleɪt)
[f. L. populāt-, ppl. stem: see populate ppl. a. and -ate3.]
1. trans. a. To people, inhabit, form the population of (a country, etc.). b. To furnish or supply (a country, etc.) with inhabitants; to people.
| 1578 Florio 1st Fruites 7 b, Adorned with fayre women, populated of many people. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 20 They populated then The foote of fountfull Ide. 1798 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799) II. 167 And would gradually populate all the sub-marine portion of the globe. 1862 Dana Man. Geol. 559 Ox and deer—all of which then populated Britain. 1885 Manch. Exam. 14 Feb. 5/2 The great countries we have populated in North America and at the Antipodes. |
2. intr. Of people: To increase, grow in numbers by propagation. rare.
| 1625 Bacon Ess., Viciss. Things (Arb.) 574 When there be great Shoales of People, which goe on to populate, without foreseeing Meanes of Life and Sustentation. 1820 Syd. Smith Wks. (1850) 285 As if..it would not set mankind populating faster than carpenters and bricklayers could cover in their children. |
3. intr. (for refl.) To become peopled or populous. U.S. rare.
| 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 556 Its trade..must increase, in proportion as the surrounding country populates. 1822 Niles' Reg. 12 Oct. 96/2 This territory [Michigan] is rapidly populating. |
Hence ˈpopulated ppl. a.2; ˈpopulating vbl. n.
| 1652 H. L'Estrange Amer. no Jewes 8 To the populating of America. 1884 Black Jud. Shaks. xvi, A populated place filled with a..number of his fellow-creatures. |