masticate
English edit
Etymology edit
From the past participle stem of Late Latin masticō (“I chew”), from Ancient Greek μαστιχάω (mastikháō, “I grind the teeth”).
Pronunciation edit
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:
- (transitive) To grind or knead something into a pulp.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
chew — see chew
to knead
Anagrams edit
Interlingua edit
Participle edit
masticate
Italian edit
Etymology 1 edit
Verb edit
masticate
Etymology 2 edit
Participle edit
masticate f pl
Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Verb edit
masticāte
Spanish edit
Verb edit
masticate
- second-person singular voseo imperative of masticar combined with te