Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - fertilize

(fertilizes, fertilizing, fertilized) Note: in BRIT, also use 'fertilise' 1. When an egg from the ovary of a woman or female animal is fertilized, a sperm from the male joins with the egg, causing a baby or young animal to begin forming. A female plant is fertilized when its reproductive parts come into contact with pollen from the male plant. Certain varieties cannot be fertilised with their own pollen. ...the normal sperm levels needed to fertilise the female egg... Pregnancy begins when the fertilized egg is implanted in the wall of the uterus. VERB: be V-ed with n, V n, V-ed • fertilization The average length of time from fertilization until birth is about 266 days. N-UNCOUNT 2. To fertilize land means to improve its quality in order to make plants grow well on it, by spreading solid animal waste or a chemical mixture on it. The faeces contain nitrogen and it is that which fertilises the desert soil. ...chemically fertilized fields. = enrich VERB: V n, V-ed