Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IN-OC'U-LATE, v.t. [L. inoculo; in and oculos, 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, &c. 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.