macerate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   soften, usually by steeping in liquid, and cause to disintegrate as a result

   Macerate peaches.

2. 2
   verb

   become soft or separate and disintegrate as a result of excessive soaking

   The tissue macerated in the water.

3. 3
   verb

   To make lean; to cause to waste away.

   Baal scuttles with ten tails Between as many legs as he could carry— Perhaps Thomas poking through the holes And finding resolution beyond the scales And incorporeal pain of the hammered Messiah,.

First attested in 1534; borrowed from Latin mācerātus, perfect passive participle of mācerō (see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from Proto-Indo-European *mag-, *mak- (“to knead”), whence make. Cognate with French macérer.

Topics