populate meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

populate

verb

UK /ˈpɒp.jʊˌleɪt/ · CA, US /ˈpɑ.pjəˌleɪt/

Etymology Borrowed from Medieval Latin populātus, past participle of populor (“populate”), from Latin populus (“people”).

To supply with inhabitants; to people.

To live in; to inhabit.

To increase in number; to breed.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Ambitransitive To fill initially empty items in a collection.

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics To fill initially empty slots or sockets on a circuit board or similar.

Antonyms: depopulate
Derived terms: populatable, populated, populator, autopopulate, depopulate, outpopulate, overpopulate, prepopulate, repopulate, underpopulate, unpopulate
Related terms: people, popular, population, populous

adj

Etymology Borrowed from Medieval Latin populātus, past participle of populor (“populate”), from Latin populus (“people”).

Obsolete populous

Now, a famous King, and ſtrengthened with a Prince of ſingular expectation, and in the prime of his years, owner of the entire Iſle of Britain, enjoying Ireland populate and quiet, and infinitely more ſupported by Confederates of the Low-Countries, Denmarke, divers of the Princes of Germany and others.a. 1626, Francis Bacon, Bacon Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, “Notes of a Speech, concerning a War with Spaine”, in Letters, Memoirs, Parliamentary Affairs, State Papers, &c., London: Robert Stephens, published 1736, page 228: