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(informal) To live or spend a period of time in a dull, inactive, unchallenging way.
1804 March 5, Charlotte Smith, letter to Sarah Rose, quoted in Judith Phillips Stanton, “Introduction to Charlotte Smith’s Letters”, in The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith, Bloomington, Ind., Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, published 2003, →ISBN, section “Friendships”, page xx:
Nor indeed is it likely I shall now ever be able to do more than vegetate, for my few remaining years or months in this or some other solitude. It is literally vegetating, for I have very little locomotive powers beyond those that appertain to a cauliflower.
I am amazed to see a young man of your appearance and talents—though, after I have been thus depreciating the latter, it is almost an affront to say any thing about those you possess—I am amazed to see you vegetating among your own oaks, as if, like them, growth were your only value."
1986 April 26, James Pierce, “AIDS Prisoners Shackled Behind Plexiglass”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
We are isolated, locked in hospital rooms 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, subjected to discrimination stemming from hatred, with no constructive programs or activities to occupy our minds. We vegitate and deteriorate physically and emotionally.