to incubate (a) culture
- verb
- /ˈɪŋkjəˌbeɪt ə ˈkʌltʃər/
- Specialized
:
incubar
- After printing, the material is incubated in a cell culture that mimics human body conditions until it fuses or becomes otherwise usable for implant, he said.
Examples
-
After printing, the material is incubated in a cell culture that mimics human body conditions until it fuses or becomes otherwise usable for implant, he said.
Academic text (2012) -
In the laboratory, researchers incubate the microorganisms to ensure optimal conditions for their reproduction.
-
The scientists will incubate the culture in a controlled environment to promote the growth of the bacteria.
-
To study the effects of temperature, they incubate the cell culture at different heat settings.
Synonyms
5
7.2
Keep cells or bacteria in warm conditions so they grow
How Controlled
69
5.3
- Specialized
38
4.0
123
3.4
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'incubate' means to hold under controlled conditions to promote growth and 'culture' refers to microorganisms or cells grown under such conditions, so their combination yields the described action. Although somewhat domain-specific, the verb+object construction is literal and cross-linguistically regular, so a learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Incubate (a) culture comes from the old image of keeping eggs warm so baby birds 'hatch'; to incubate means to hold something warm and safe so life can 'grow'. So when lab workers incubate a culture, they keep the tiny organisms at the right warmth so they 'grow' for study.