cultivation
(kʌltɪˈveɪʃən)
[a. F. cultivation (16th c.), n. of action from cultiver: see cultive v. and -ation.]
1. a. The tilling of land; tillage, husbandry. Also attrib., as cultivation field, cultivation system; cultivation bank, terrace, a bank or terrace formed either naturally or artificially on a cultivated hillside; a lynchet; cultivation mark Archæol., a mark on the soil caused by cultivation in an earlier period; cultivation paddock, the part of an Australian farming estate used for the raising of crops.
| 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 278 Soil..capable of cultivations and improvements. 1746–7 Hervey Medit. (1818) 144 By industry and cultivation, this neat spot is an image of Eden. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 17 The cultivation of a farm. 1869 Dilke Greater Brit. II. 116 The amount of land under cultivation. |
| 1923 Geogr. Jrnl. May 356 Hitherto I have used this word [sc. lynchet] to describe the cultivation-banks of the Celtic system. |
| 1893 F. Adams New Egypt 94 An open space in the desert, beyond the cultivation fields. |
| 1924 Mawer & Stenton Introd. Surv. Eng. Place-Names viii. 156 Air photographs..reveal..trackways and cultivation-marks which would otherwise be overlooked. |
| 1853 St. Julian & Silvester Prod. N.S.W. iv. 170 Few stations of any magnitude are without their ‘cultivation paddocks’. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 13 Dec. 2/1 Posy..went over the fence into the cultivation paddock. |
| 1923 Geogr. Jrnl. May 347, I think..that the date 650 b.c. is probably within a century or two of the date when the Celtic cultivation-system was inaugurated. |
| 1911 Antiquary VII. 416/1 Within the camp, on the southern slope of the hill-crest, there exists a series of broad cultivation terraces. 1951 Field Archæol. (Ordnance Survey) (ed. 3) 62 Each of these strips was separated from its neighbours by a ‘balk’ of untilled land, and if the common field so divided lay on the slope of a hill a cultivation terrace or ‘lynchet’ formed on the lower boundary of each in the course of time. |
† b. Improvement (of land); increase of fertility.
Obs. rare.
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §206 The first shower of rain would turn it all to stone, without affording any sensible cultivation to the land. |
2. a. The bestowing of labour and care upon a plant, so as to develop and improve its qualities: the raising of (a crop) by tillage.
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. vii, I saw several Sugar Canes, but wild, and for want of Cultivation, imperfect. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 257 The seeds of plants, exalted by cultivation, always furnish large and improved Varieties. 1871 R. W. Dale Commandm. ix. 231 You cannot change a rose into a pear tree by cultivation. Mod. Land devoted to the cultivation of wheat. |
b. transf. The production or raising of a ‘crop’ of any kind (as of oysters, microscopic organisms, etc.); also
concr. the product of such cultivation (of bacteria, etc.);
= culture n. 3 b, c. Also
attrib. and
Comb., as
cultivation experiment,
cultivation fluid. In wider use (
cf. culture n. 3 c).
| 1884 Klein Micro-Organisms (1886) 159 Twenty days cultivation of blood-bacilli at 42° to 43° C. does not always yield attenuated virus. Ibid. 26 Test-tubes which are to receive cultivation-fluids. 1886 E. M. Crookshank Bacteriology 69 In a glass beaker..place the tube containing the cultivation. 1910 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 15 Oct. 1379/2 (heading) Cultivation of adult tissues and organs outside of the body. 1926 Proc. R. Soc. B.C. 279 After the 17th day of cultivation the eyes undergo no further development and usually begin to degenerate. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. XIII. 653/2 Under certain conditions of cultivation the normal organization of the explanted tissue can be preserved and..it may undergo a remarkable degree of histological and even anatomical development. 1965 White & Grove Proc. Internat. Conf. Plant Tissue Culture 20 The initial pH of the nutrient media is important for the cultivation of excised roots. |
3. fig. a. The devoting of special attention or study to the development of, or to progress in (a branch of knowledge, a person's acquaintance, etc.).
| a 1700 Dryden (J.), A cultivation of learning. 1780 Harris Philol. Enq. Wks. (1841) 463 The cultivation of every liberal accomplishment. 1877 Tyndall in Daily News 2 Oct. 2/4 The cultivation of right relations with his fellow men. |
b. The bestowing of special attention upon a person for the sake of gaining his favour.
rare.
| 1793 T. Taylor Sallust xiv. 70 [The gods] become angry with the guilty, but are rendered propitious by proper cultivation. |
4. The developing, fostering, or improving (of the mind, faculties, etc.) by education and training; the condition of being cultivated; culture, refinement.
| a 1716 South Serm. VI. xi. (R.), Use and cultivation of reason. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. i, An enthusiastic advocate for the cultivation of the mind, he was an equally ardent supporter of the cultivation of the body. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. I. i. 88 Increased cultivation almost always produces..fastidiousness. |