verb
digest
dye-JEST/daɪˈdʒest/
To break down food for absorption.
Your stomach and intestines digest food so your body can absorb nutrients.
Etymology
The literal image of carrying apart connects through the Latin meanings ‘separate’ and ‘divide’ to breaking food down. English used the word for the body's assimilation of food from its earliest recorded use.
In context
The parasympathetic side is where the body's going to move into to optimize digestive capacity and improve our ability to break our food down and digest and get all the nutrients out of that food better.
More examples
- Some people have trouble digesting milk.
- Cooked vegetables are often easier to digest than raw ones.
- I need time to digest this meal before running.
Forms
Similar words
- break down
- Describes reducing substances to simpler parts, not only food.
- metabolize
- Includes chemical processing of nutrients after digestion, often for energy.