Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To convert (food) into simpler chemical compounds that can be absorbed and assimilated by an organism, as by chemical and muscular action in the digestive tract.
  • intransitive verb To think over so as to understand; absorb or assimilate.
  • intransitive verb To organize into a systematic arrangement, usually by summarizing or classifying.
  • intransitive verb To condense or abridge (a written work).
  • intransitive verb Chemistry To soften or disintegrate by means of chemical action, heat, or moisture.
  • intransitive verb To become assimilated into the body.
  • intransitive verb To assimilate food substances.
  • intransitive verb Chemistry To undergo exposure to heat, liquids, or chemical agents.
  • noun A collection of previously published material, such as articles, essays, or reports, usually in edited or condensed form.
  • noun Law A systematic arrangement of abstracts from court decisions designed to simplify the locating of relevant case law.
  • noun A periodical containing literary abridgments or other condensed works.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A collection, compilation, abridgment, or summary of literary, legal, scientific, or historical matter, arranged in some convenient order.
  • noun Specifically [capitalized] The collection or body of Roman laws prepared by order of the emperor Justinian. See pandect.
  • noun In law, a compilation of concise statements, summaries, or analyses of statutes or of reported cases, or of both, arranged in alphabetical order of subjects, usually with analytic subdivisions, so as to form a systematic compend of the authorities represented in the collection.
  • noun Synonyms Compendium, Compend, etc. See abridgment.
  • To divide; separate.
  • To analyze and distribute into suitable classes, or under proper heads or titles, usually with condensation, so as to state results in concise form; arrange in convenient order; dispose methodically.
  • To draw up in order; arrange.
  • To arrange methodically in the mind; think out with due arrangement of parts; ponder; settle in one's mind: as, to digest a plan or scheme.
  • To prepare for assimilation, as food, by the physiological process of digestion: applied also by extension to the action of certain insectivorous plants.
  • Hence —
  • To assimilate mentally; obtain mental nourishment or improvement from by thorough comprehension: as, to digest a book or a discourse.
  • To bear with patience or with an effort; brook; receive without resentment; put up with; endure: as, to digest an insult.
  • In chem., to soften and prepare by heat; expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for operations.
  • To dissolve and prepare for manure, as plants and other substances.
  • 10. In medicine, to dispose to suppurate, as an ulcer or a wound.—
  • To mature; ripen.
  • Synonyms
  • To classify, codify, systematize, methodize, reduce to order.
  • To study out, meditate, ponder, work upon.
  • To carry on the physiological process of digestion.
  • To undergo digestion, as food.
  • To be prepared by heat.
  • To suppurate; generate pus, as an ulcer or a wound.
  • To dissolve and be prepared for manure, as substances in compost.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Law) That which is digested; especially, that which is worked over, classified, and arranged under proper heads or titles.
  • transitive verb To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application
  • transitive verb (Physiol.) 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.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To appropriate for strengthening and comfort.
  • transitive verb Hence: To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.
  • transitive verb (Chem.) To soften by heat and moisture; to expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.
  • transitive verb (Med.) To dispose to suppurate, or generate healthy pus, as an ulcer or wound.
  • transitive verb obsolete To ripen; to mature.
  • transitive verb To quiet or abate, as anger or grief.
  • intransitive verb To undergo digestion.
  • intransitive verb (Med.) To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English digesten, from Latin dīgerere, dīgest-, to separate, arrange : dī-, dis-, apart; see dis– + gerere, to carry. N., from Latin dīgesta, neuter pl. of dīgestus, past participle of dīgerere, to separate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin digesta, neuter plural of digestus, past participle of digero ("separate")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English digesten, from Latin digestus, past participle of dīgero ("carry apart"), from di- for dis- ("apart") + gero ("I carry"), influenced by Middle French digestion

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