From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinoculatei‧noc‧u‧late /ɪˈnɒkjəleɪt $ ɪˈnɑː-/ verb [transitive] MHMDto protect someone against a disease by putting a weak form of the disease into their body using a needle → immunize, vaccinateinoculate somebody against something All the children had been inoculated against hepatitis. —inoculation /ɪˌnɒkjəˈleɪʃən $ -ˌnɑːk-/ noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
inoculate• To be sure, scientists have created disease by inoculating animals with brain tissue from infected animals.• She had been inoculated April 21 with the Cutter vaccine, along with almost four-hundred Clearwater County first-and second graders.• His dark throat lay inoculated beneath that hollow of wrinkled skin.• By mid-November 1953 plans were in place to start inoculating children on February 8,1954.• Still, the day after the announcement in Ann Arbor, communities started inoculating children.• And Isle of Muck had inoculated his tenants against the smallpox at a cost of two shillings and sixpence per head.• I sometimes think that the principal function of professional training in education is to inoculate teachers against books on education.• Net fluid transport was measured 18 hours after inoculating the intestine with the bacterial strain.Origin inoculate (1400-1500) Latin past participle of inoculare “to attach a bud to a plant”, from oculus “eye, bud” 