Obs. Also 5 -yue, 6 -ife. [a. F. cultiver (12–13th c. in Godef.), ad. late L. cultīvāre to CULTIVATE. (In OF. the word had also a semi-popular form coutiver.)] trans. = CULTIVATE. Hence † Cultiving vbl. sb., cultivation.
1483. Caxton, Esope, 145. The labourer … made alle his ground to be cultyued and ered. Ibid. (1483), Cato, E iij. The cultyuyng and eerynge of the erthe.
1546. St. Papers Hen. VIII., XI. 181. To cultife the land.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. 27. Whichsoever he tooke pleasure to plant and cultive.
1635. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 120. Cultiving the seeds of the other Arabian odours.
