Definition of populates:
(v) :
(transitive) To supply with inhabitants; to people.
(v) :
(transitive) To live in; to inhabit.
(v) :
(intransitive) To increase in number; to breed.
(v) :
(computing, ambitransitive) To fill initially empty items in a collection.
(v) :
(electronics) To fill initially empty slots or sockets on a circuit board or similar.
(adj) :
(obsolete) populous