masticate

English edit

WOTD – 4 May 2006

Etymology edit

From the past participle stem of Late Latin masticō (“I chew”), from Ancient Greek μαστιχάω (mastikháō, “I grind the teeth”).

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈmæstɪkeɪt/
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Verb edit

masticate (third-person singular simple present masticates, present participle masticating, simple past and past participle masticated)

(transitive) To chew (food).
The cow stood, quietly masticating its cud.
- 1832, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in The Pickwick Papers:
  The fat boy rose, opened his eyes, swallowed the huge piece of pie he had been in the act of masticating when he last fell asleep, and slowly obeyed his master’s orders.
- 1892, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Typee: A Romance of the South Seas:
  "By tasting it, to be sure," said I, masticating a morsel that Kory-Kory had just put in my mouth.
- 1896, H. G. Wells, chapter 8, in The Island of Dr. Moreau:
  He resumed his meal. "I had no idea of it," he said, and masticated.
- 1927-1929, Mahatma Gandhi, translated by Mahadev Desai, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, published 1940:
  The vegetables were not to be cooked but merely grated fine, if I could not masticate them.
- 2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup:
  The friends watch the two make their way between other habitués masticating, drinking, crouched in a scrum of conversation […]
(transitive) To grind or knead something into a pulp.