Definition of "irrigate" []

• To supply (dry land) with water by means of ditches, pipes, or streams; water artificially. (verb-transitive)
• To wash out (a body cavity or wound) with water or a medicated fluid. (verb-transitive)
• To make fertile or vital as if by watering. (verb-transitive)
• To supply land with water artificially. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Today, one of the world's oldest settled areas, where men first learned to irrigate, is a man-made desert."
• "These rivers irrigate the acacias, the bright green rice fields and other human endeavor."
• "By the way, same solution, just a little bit stronger, can be used to gargle throat and irrigate nostrils at the first signs of cold or flu."