/ · 1894 Brewer’s · I · Inoculate
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is to put in an eye (Latin, in oculus). The allusion is to a plan adopted by gardeners who insert the “eye” or small bud of a superior plant into the stock of an inferior one, in order to produce flowers or fruits of better quality.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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