macerate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To make soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid.
2. v. To separate into constituents by soaking.
3. v. To cause to become lean, usually by starvation; emaciate.
4. v. To become soft or separated into constituents by soaking: "His winemaker allowed the juice and skins of the white grapes to macerate together overnight before pressing” ( Gerald Asher).
5. n. A substance prepared or produced by macerating.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To steep or soak almost to solution; soften and separate the parts of by steeping in a fluid, usually without heat, or by the digestive process: as, to maceratc a plant for the extraction of its medicinal properties; food is macerated in the stomach.
2. To make lean; cause to grow lean or to waste away.
3. To harass or mortify; worry; annoy.

Wiktionary

1. v. To soften (something) or separate (something) into pieces by soaking (it) in a heated or unheated liquid.
2. v. obsolete To make lean; to cause to waste away.
3. v. obsolete To subdue the appetite by poor or scanty diet; to mortify.
4. n. A macerated substance.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. Obs. or R. To make lean; to cause to waste away.
2. v. To subdue the appetites of by poor and scanty diet; to mortify.
3. v. To soften by steeping in a liquid, with or without heat; to wear away or separate the parts of by steeping.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. become soft or separate and disintegrate as a result of excessive soaking
2. v. separate into constituents by soaking
3. v. cause to grow thin or weak
4. v. soften, usually by steeping in liquid, and cause to disintegrate as a result