digest Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a periodical that summarizes the news
  2. noun something that is compiled (as into a single book or file)
    compilation.
  3. verb convert food into absorbable substances
    • I cannot digest milk products
  4. verb arrange and integrate in the mind
    • I cannot digest all this information
  5. verb put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    stomach; brook; support; put up; tolerate; bear; abide; endure; stick out; suffer; stand.
    • I cannot bear his constant criticism
    • The new secretary had to endure a lot of unprofessional remarks
    • he learned to tolerate the heat
    • She stuck out two years in a miserable marriage
  6. verb become assimilated into the body
    • Protein digests in a few hours
  7. verb systematize, as by classifying and summarizing
    • the government digested the entire law into a code
  8. verb soften or disintegrate, as by undergoing exposure to heat or moisture
  9. verb make more concise
    concentrate; condense.
    • condense the contents of a book into a summary
  10. verb soften or disintegrate by means of chemical action, heat, or moisture

WordNet

Di*gest" transitive verb
Etymology
L. digestus, p. p. of digerere to separate, arrange, dissolve, digest; di- = dis- + gerere to bear, carry, wear. See Jest.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Digested; present participle & verbal noun Digesting
Definitions
  1. To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application; as, to digest the laws, etc.
    Joining them together and digesting them into order. Blair.
    We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. Shak.
  2. (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.
  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. Sir H. Sidney.
    How shall this bosom multiplied digest The senate's courtesy? Shak.
  4. To appropriate for strengthening and comfort.
    Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. Book of Common Prayer.
  5. Hence: To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.
    I never can digest the loss of most of Origin's works. Coleridge.
  6. (Chem.) To soften by heat and moisture; to expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.
  7. (Med.) To dispose to suppurate, or generate healthy pus, as an ulcer or wound.
  8. To ripen; to mature. Obs.
    Well-digested fruits. Jer. Taylor.
  9. To quiet or abate, as anger or grief.
Di*gest" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To undergo digestion; as, food digests well or ill.
  2. (Med.) To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.
Di"gest noun
Etymology
L. digestum, pl. digesta, neut., fr. digestus, p. p.: cf. F. digeste. See Digest, v. t.
Definitions
  1. That which is digested; especially, that which is worked over, classified, and arranged under proper heads or titles; esp. (Law), a compilation of statutes or decisions analytically arranged. The term is applied in a general sense to the Pandects of Justinian (see Pandect), but is also specially given by authors to compilations of laws on particular topics; a summary of laws; as, Comyn's Digest; the United States Digest.
    A complete digest of Hindu and Mahommedan laws after the model of Justinian's celebrated Pandects. Sir W. Jones.
    They made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called the Rights of Man. Burke.

Webster 1913