INOC'ULATE, verb transitive [Latin inoculo; in and occulus, the eye.]

1. To bud; to insert the bud of a tree or plant in another tree or plant, for the purpose of growth on the new stock. All sorts of stone fruit, apples, pears, etc. may be inoculated. We inoculate the stock with a foreign bud.

2. To communicate a disease to a person by inserting infectious matter in his skin or flesh; as, to inoculate a person with the matter of small pox or cow pox. When the latter disease is communicated, it is called vaccination.

INOC'ULATE, verb intransitive To propagate by budding; to practice inoculation. The time to inoculate is when the buds are formed at the extremities of the same year's shoot, indicating that the spring growth for that season is complete.