Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Digest?

\Di*gest"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Digested}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Digesting}.] [L. digestus, p. p. of digerere to separate, arrange, dissolve, digest; di- = dis- + gerere to bear, carry, wear. See {Jest}.] 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"\, v. i. 1. To undergo digestion; as, food digests well or ill. 2. (Med.) To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.
\Di"gest\, n. [L. digestum, pl. digesta, neut., fr. digestus, p. p.: cf. F. digeste. See {Digest}, v. t.] 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.