cultivate

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
cultivate/ˈkʌltɪveɪt/

▶verb

• 1 prepare and use (land) for crops or gardening.

  ■ grow (plants), especially on a large scale for commercial purposes.

• 2 Biology grow or maintain (living cells or tissue) in culture.

• 3 try to acquire or develop (a quality or skill).

  ■ try to win the friendship or favour of.

• 4 (as adj. cultivated) refined and well educated.

– derivatives
cultivable adjective,
cultivatable adjective,
cultivator noun.

– origin C17: from med. L. cultivat-, cultivare, from cultiva (terra) ‘arable (land)’, from colere ‘cultivate, inhabit’.