digest
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: dī-jĕstʹ
enpr: də-jĕstʹ
ipa: /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst/
ipa: /dəˈd͡ʒɛst/
rhymes: -ɛst
Forms: form: digests
form: digesting
form: digested
form: digested
Etymology: From Middle English digesten, from Latin dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“carry apart”), from dī- (for dis- (“apart”)) + gerō (“I carry”), influenced by Middle French digestion. Partly displaced native Old English meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both “to melt, to digest,” whence Modern English melt.
Senses: examples: text: to digest laws
text: joining them together and digesting them into order
ref: 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres:
text: We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
glosses: To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application.
glosses: To separate (the food) in its passage through the alimentary canal into the nutritive and nonnutritive elements; to prepare, by the action of the digestive juices, for conversion into blood; to convert into chyme.
examples: text: Feelingly digest the words you speak in prayer.
ref: 1566, Henry Sidney, letter to Philip Sidney:
text: How shall this bosom multiplied digest / The senate's courtesy?
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.
ref: 1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], →OCLC:
glosses: To think over and arrange methodically in the mind; to reduce to a plan or method; to receive in the mind and consider carefully; to get an understanding of; to comprehend.
examples: text: I never can digest the loss of most of Origen's works.
ref: 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk - Toleration-Norwegians:
glosses: To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.
examples: text: I just ate an omelette and I'm waiting for it to digest.
text: I was at the Mathematical School, where the Maſter taught his Pupils after a Method ſcarce imaginable to us in Europe. The Propoſition and Demonſtration were fairly written on a thin Wafer, with Ink compoſed of a Cephalick Tincture. This the Student was to ſwallow upon a faſting Stomach, and for three days following eat nothing but Bread and Water. As the Wafer digeſted, the Tincture mounted to his Brain, bearing the Propoſition along with it.
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Permitted to See the Grand Academy of Lagado. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 78:
glosses: To undergo digestion.
examples: text: The Lips of the Abſceſs digeſted vvell, but from vvithin it onely gleeted, and thruſt out Fat, vvhich vve daily cut off vvithout the loſs of a drop of blood, and dreſſed up the Abſceſs vvith mundif. ex apio, continuing the uſe of diſcutient Fomentations and Cataplaſins.
ref: 1676, Richard Wiseman, “The First Book. A Treatise of Tumours. Chapter XVIII. Of an Oedema.”, in Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […], →OCLC, page 89:
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: To cause to suppurate, or generate pus, as an ulcer or wound.
examples: text: well-digested fruits
ref: 1662, Jeremy Taylor, The Measures and Offices of Friendship:
glosses: To ripen; to mature.
glosses: To quieten or reduce (a negative feeling, such as anger or grief).
Synonyms: sense: distribute or arrange methodically
word: arrange
sense: distribute or arrange methodically
word: sort
sense: distribute or arrange methodically
word: sort out
sense: think over and arrange methodically in the mind
word: sort out
Derived terms: autodigest
codigest
digestability
digestant
digestate
digestedly
digestedness
digester
digestogram
digestome
digestor
indigested
maldigest
maldigested
misdigest
nondigested
predigest
redigest
rest-and-digest
semidigested
underdigested
undigested
undigesting