(1) Growing or functioning involuntarily or unconsciously, after the assumed manner of vegetable life; denoting especially a state of grossly impaired consciousness, as after severe head trauma or brain disease, in which a person is incapable of voluntary or purposeful acts and only responds reflexively to painful stimuli. (2) Resting; not active; denoting the stage of a cell or its nucleus in which the process of karyokinesis is quiescent.vegetation.
