digester

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a sealed vessel in which plant, animal, or other material is broken down by heat, pressure, chemicals, or enzymes

   The pulp mill cooked wood chips in a pressurized digester.

2. 2
   noun

   an anaerobic tank in which microorganisms break down organic waste, often producing biogas

   The farm's digester turns manure into methane and fertilizer.

Formed from digest + -er. Digest comes from Latin digerere, 'to separate and arrange,' later 'to break down.' The apparatus name likens industrial or microbial processing to digestion; Papin's seventeenth-century steam digester was an early pressure cooker.

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