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digest

verbnounattested in dialogue

  • //daɪˈd͡ʒɛst//
  • //dəˈd͡ʒɛst//
  • //ˈdaɪd͡ʒəst//

To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application.

verb

  1. 1

    To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application.

    to digest laws

    joining them together and digesting them into order

    We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested.

  2. 2

    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.

    In the morning giue them [horses] barley or prouender, a little at a time in diſtinct or ſeueral portions, tvvice or thrice one after another, ſo as he may chevv and eke diſgeſt it thoroughly, othervviſe if he rauen it, as he vvil do hauing much at a time, he rendreth it in his dung vvhole and not diſgeſted.

  3. 3

    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.

    Feelingly digest the words you speak in prayer.

    How shall this bosom multiplied digest / The senate's courtesy?

    Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.

  4. 4

    To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.

    I never can digest the loss of most of Origen's works.

  5. 5

    To expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.

  6. 6

    To undergo digestion.

    I just ate an omelette and I'm waiting for it to digest.

  7. 7

    To cut with one or more restriction endonucleases.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.

    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.

  9. 9

    obsoleteTo cause to suppurate, or generate pus, as an ulcer or wound.

  10. 10

    obsoleteTo ripen; to mature.

    well-digested fruits

  11. 11

    obsoleteTo quieten or reduce (a negative feeling, such as anger or grief).

Etymology

From Middle English digesten, from Latin dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“carry apart”), from dī- (for dis- (“apart”)) + gerō (“to 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.

noun

  1. 1

    That which is digested; especially, that which is worked over, classified, and arranged under proper heads or titles.

    By also relating the tales included in the anthology to various facts of that development, he leaves no doubt that this volume constitutes a veritable digest of the remarkable strides made by the genre in recent years.

  2. 2

    A compilation of statutes or decisions analytically arranged; a summary of laws.

    Comyn's Digest

    the United States Digest

  3. 3

    Any collection of articles, as an Internet mailing list including a week's postings, or a magazine arranging a collection of writings.

    Reader's Digest is published monthly.

    The weekly email digest contains all the messages exchanged during the past week.

  4. 4

    The result of applying a hash function to a message.

Etymology

From Latin dīgesta, neuter plural of dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“separate”).

Forms

plural
digests
past tense
digested
past participle
digested
present participle
digesting
third person singular
digests
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).