digestion

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Physiology The process by which food is converted into substances that can be absorbed and assimilated by the body. It is accomplished in the alimentary canal by the mechanical and enzymatic breakdown of foods into simpler chemical compounds.
2. n. Physiology The result of this process.
3. n. Physiology The ability to digest food.
4. n. The process of decomposing organic matter in sewage by bacteria.
5. n. Assimilation of ideas or information; understanding.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Order; arrangement.
2. n. The physiological process of converting the food from the state in which it enters the mouth to that in which it can pass from the alimentary canal into the blood-vessels and lymphatics. The principal features of the process, apart from the comminution of the food, are the conversion of starch into sugar and of proteids into peptones, and the emulsionizing of the fats. These changes are effected by the action of soluble ferments furnished by the salivary glands, thegastric glands, the pancreas, and the intestinal glands. The bile is also of service, especially in the emulsionizing of the fats.
3. n. The function or power of assimilating nutriment.
4. n. In botany: The process carried on in leaves under the action of light, resulting in the decomposition of carbonic acid and the evolution of oxygen.
5. n. In insectivorous plants, an action of secreted fluids upon insects or other organic matter, similar to the process of digestion in animals.
6. n. In chem.: The operation of exposing bodies to heat to prepare them for some action on each other.
7. n. The action ofa solvent on any substance, especially under the influence of heat and pressure; solution; liquefaction. See digester .
8. n. The act of methodizing and reducing to order; coördination.
9. n. The process of maturing an ulcer or a wound, and disposing it to generate pus; maturation.
10. n. The process of dissolution and preparation of substances for manure, as in compost.

Wiktionary

1. n. The process, in the gastrointestinal tract, by which food is converted into substances that can be utilized by the body.
2. n. The result of this process.
3. n. The ability to use this process.
4. n. The processing of decay in organic matter assisted by microorganisms.
5. n. The assimilation and understanding of ideas.
6. n. medicine, archaic generation of pus; suppuration

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or process of digesting; reduction to order; classification; thoughtful consideration.
2. n. (Physiol.) The conversion of food, in the stomach and intestines, into soluble and diffusible products, capable of being absorbed by the blood.
3. n. (Med.) Generation of pus; suppuration.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. learning and coming to understand ideas and information
2. n. the process of decomposing organic matter (as in sewage) by bacteria or by chemical action or heat
3. n. the organic process by which food is converted into substances that can be absorbed into the body