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Masticate   Listen
verb
Masticate  v. t.  (past & past part. masticated; pres. part. masticating)  To grind or crush with, or as with, the teeth and prepare for swallowing and digestion; to chew; as, to masticate food.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Masticate" Quotes from Famous Books



... could reach. It was not from lack of food; there was grass enough in the pasture, and provender and hay at the barn; but an abnormal appetite had beset them; they would even pull off the tough bark of cedars, in the swamp by the brook, and stand for hours, trying to masticate long, ...
— A Busy Year at the Old Squire's • Charles Asbury Stephens

... a motley procession. There is the man who believes we can eat anything provided we masticate everything with bovine thoroughness; there is the man who believes that we ought to eat nothing during long bouts of purgative fasting, and who lives cheerfully and inexpensively on hot water during two yearly periods of twenty days. There is the woman who has found the nearest approach ...
— Mountain Meditations - and some subjects of the day and the war • L. Lind-af-Hageby

... before him. But we others who, in books as in music, desire above all to find substance, and who are scarcely satisfied with the mere representation of a banquet, are much worse off. In plain English, Wagner does not give us enough to masticate. His recitative—very little meat, more bones, and plenty of broth—I christened "alla genovese": I had no intention of flattering the Genoese with this remark, but rather the older recitativo, the recitativo secco. And as to Wagnerian leitmotif, I ...
— The Case Of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms. • Friedrich Nietzsche.

... Quiet upon the world, and ordered measure, And take no vantage of the fallen foe In land (which is but dust) and sordid treasure? But rather of her kindness yield The balm whereby hurt wounds are healed, That couchant in the selfsame field Lion and lamb may masticate at leisure. ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 2, 1914 • Various

... bird for supper. If it was not one of the fossils it certainly was one of the "oldest inhabitants," which are found in every locality, and though a steady diet of bacon enthused us with an ambition to masticate this noble morsel, it had to be relegated to the impossibilities. We had a good deal of entertainment out of it, and while so engaged every ear caught the sound of a faint, distant gunshot. This was proof that we were no longer alone, and the question was, "How many Indians ...
— A Canyon Voyage • Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

... thresh that out with his wife at home after he has voted. Attorney Briggs was going to Chicago this afternoon, but I notice he is coming back from the depot. Mrs. Briggs is bringing him. If I know anything about rage, Attorney Briggs is ready to masticate barbed wire. His arms are making a blue haze as they revolve. But he's coming back to vote. He can go to Chicago to-morrow, but the nation must be saved before ...
— Homeburg Memories • George Helgesen Fitch

... produced. But where were the teeth to be found that could masticate them? The cakes were frozen as hard as stones; this was a great disappointment to us tired and hungry wights; but it only produced a hearty laugh. Over the logs we went again; for it was a perpetual ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... put-you-in-your-place beauty of the future, Jennie defended her cake. After all, it was not she who had taken two slices at once. Cyril hit her in the eye, and then crammed most of the slice of cake into his enormous mouth. He could not swallow it, nor even masticate it, for his throat was rigid and tight. So the cake projected from his red lips, and big tears watered it. The most awful mess you can conceive! Jennie wept loudly, and one or two others joined her in sympathy, but the rest went on eating tranquilly, ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... great error. "To feed an infant with animal food before it has teeth proper for masticating it, shows a total disregard to the plain indications of nature, in withholding such teeth till the system requires their assistance to masticate solid food. And the method of grating and pounding meat, as a substitute for chewing, may be well suited to the toothless octogenarian, whose stomach is capable of digesting it; but the stomach of a ...
— The Maternal Management of Children, in Health and Disease. • Thomas Bull, M.D.

... here was a kind of whale that could swallow—well, a block four or five feet square apparently; who lived upon creatures as large as himself, if one might judge of their bulk by the sample to hand; but being unable, from only possessing teeth in one jaw, to masticate his food, was compelled to tear it in sizable pieces, bolt it whole, and leave his commissariat ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... Amazing to relate, she kept comparatively well and active, though without water; and in my most violent paroxysm she would pounce upon a lizard or a rat, and give me its warm blood to drink, while yet it lived. Then she would masticate a piece of iguana flesh and give it to me in my mouth, but I was quite unable to swallow it, greatly to her disappointment. She must have seen that I was slowly sinking, for at last she stooped down and whispered earnestly in my ear that she would leave me for a little while, and go off in search ...
— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont

... wisely Determined in everything To model his Court precisely On that of the English King; And ordered that every lady And every lady's lord Should masticate jacky (a kind of tobaccy), ...
— More Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert

... rather a weakness. These I had slipped into my pocket the last thing before leaving the wagon and had then entirely forgotten; and the fancy seized me to offer one of them to the colt. He smelt at it for a moment or two, and then, somewhat hesitatingly, closed his teeth upon it and began to masticate it. Evidently he liked it, for having swallowed it he thrust forward his head, as though asking for more, whereupon I produced a second, which he at once accepted. I then offered a third, holding it far enough from him to compel him to advance a step or two in ...
— Through Veld and Forest - An African Story • Harry Collingwood

... it right back and masticate it well. They've fine heads for business in your family, not ...
— Colorado Jim • George Goodchild

... upwards of a hundred feet long, a vast inert creature, with a tough black hide. In spite of its enormous bulk its brain was only the size of a pigeon's egg, so that its mental processes must have been of the simplest. It had a big mouth full of rudimentary teeth, of no use to masticate its food, but just sufficing to crop the luxuriant juicy vegetable stalks on which it lived, and of which it ate in the course of the day as much as a small hayrick would contain. The poisonous swamps in which it crept can seldom have seen the light of day; perpetual ...
— The Thread of Gold • Arthur Christopher Benson

... idiosyncrasies have to be taken into account. Sometimes "What is one man's meat is another man's poison." On the other hand, many have mistaken ideas as to their own idiosyncrasies. For instance, many people think that nuts never agree with them, when the trouble really is that they do not masticate them properly. Many think peanuts indigestible, not realizing either the importance of mastication or the importance of avoiding over-roasting. The ordinary peanuts are over-roasted. Peanuts very slightly roasted and very thoroughly masticated seldom disagree with one. Others believe that bananas ...
— How to Live - Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science • Irving Fisher and Eugene Fisk

... conscious possession of Him, a well-grounded hope of immortality, the power to live a noble life and to look forward to a glorious heaven, are 'bread of deceit,' which promises nourishment and does not give it, but breaks the teeth that try to masticate it; 'it turneth ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... mammalia; not that they have the slightest resemblance to the ant-eaters in any respect, but simply, as before stated, because they want the cutting teeth. They are not absolutely toothless, however, since they possess both canines and molars. With these they are enabled to masticate their food, which consists of the leaves and tender shoots ...
— Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found - A Book of Zoology for Boys • Mayne Reid

... palate becomes dull by repeated tasting, one of the best ways of refreshing it, is to masticate an apple, or to wash your mouth well ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner

... a meal there has been overeating, either at the last meal or previously. Undermasticating usually accompanies overeating and causes further trouble. Those who masticate thoroughly are generally quite moderate in their ...
— Maintaining Health • R. L. Alsaker

... of asking you, general," said the commodore, as he began to masticate a perch, "whether you are an aristocrat or a democrat. We have had the government pretty much upside-down, too, this morning, but this ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... we eat too much. It is better to err in the other direction. An uncomfortable feeling of fullness, or of dullness and stupor after a meal is a sure sign of over-eating, so whatever and whenever you eat, eat slowly, masticate your food well, and DO NOT ...
— How To Behave: A Pocket Manual Of Republican Etiquette, And Guide To Correct Personal Habits • Samuel R Wells

... soon in great heat, the gas is warmed, expands, and in its endeavor to escape raises the mass. The heat sets the mixture in this raised condition, thus the cake or pudding is rendered light, easier to masticate and digest. ...
— The Story of Crisco • Marion Harris Neil

... not only spilt more during the afternoon, but also been twice the victim of what is technically known as "boiling over"—felt quite unable to make a third at the gate party, and so was forced to masticate her impatience and hover in the window until Susan turned at last and came up ...
— Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop • Anne Warner

... to masticate the heel. But the glare that he turned upward at the man, from his red-rimmed eyes, proclaimed the fact that he would "just as lives" chew on the ...
— The Girls of Central High in Camp - The Old Professor's Secret • Gertrude W. Morrison

... having tried everything that could be tried and completely failed. I would, however, recommend that neither hay nor straw be given to animals labouring under the disease. I lost a valuable bull, after he was recovering, from this cause. He was allowed to eat too freely of hay, which he could not masticate; and when opened after death, an ordinary bucketful of hay was found in his stomach, as dry as when it was eaten. I have come to the conclusion that no animal should be allowed hay or straw while unable properly to masticate its food. It is well ascertained ...
— Cattle and Cattle-breeders • William M'Combie

... swallow at all can swallow these liquid things, if he chooses. But how often do we hear a mutton-chop, an egg, a bit of bacon, ordered to a patient for breakfast, to whom (as a moment's consideration would show us) it must be quite impossible to masticate such things ...
— Notes on Nursing - What It Is, and What It Is Not • Florence Nightingale

... much better than candle—a little difficult to masticate perhaps, but, if I do say it myself, quite a tolerable flavour. If I only hadn't used that abominable French polish this morning. What do ...
— A Voyage of Consolation - (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An - American girl in London') • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... the Ramadan. Poor creatures, they have little to eat; they say they have nothing but barley-meal and dates to eat, for the Turks have taken away all their money. Some, however, as a luxury, which their relations and friends send them from Soudan, masticate ghour[44]-nuts, and which I believe is the kolat, or colat-nut of CailliƩ. The Arabs called these nuts the "Coffee of Soudan." Konja is a great place for the growth of the ghour, two or three months ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... food and too much needless worry. His practice and advice is, be sure that you are really hungry and are not pampering false appetite. If true appetite that will relish plain bread alone is not present, wait for it, if you have to wait till noon. Then chew, masticate, munch, bite, taste everything you take in your mouth; until it is not only thoroughly liquefied and made neutral or alkaline by saliva, but until the reduced substance all settles back in the ...
— The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition • A. W. Duncan

... attendants, cut into long strips, and so many of these are thrown into the fires at once that they are nearly put out. Half broiled and burning hot, the meat is quickly handed round; every one gets a mouthful, but no one except the chief has time to masticate. It is not the enjoyment of eating they aim at, but to get as much of the food into the stomach as possible during the short time the others are cramming as well as themselves, for no one can eat more than a mouthful after ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone

... compound! Toothsome did we say? Nay, even those who have lost their 'molares, incisores,' canine teeth, 'dentes sapientiae,' and all can masticate and inwardly digest thee! ...
— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour

... to you the title, Though well I know that it is not your due, Being devoid of everything most vital To the high charge which is imposed on you; Listen awhile—and, Number Two, be dumb; Forbear to scratch the irritable tress; No longer masticate the furtive gum; And, Private Pitt, stop nibbling at your thumb, And for a change attend to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, August 1, 1917. • Various

... or Tongan groups, where spontaneous bread-fruit would afford Mr. Floyd good plucking, and Messrs. Wigfall, Benjamin, and Prior could even have their chewing done by proxy, for the native pauper employs the old women to masticate his Ava into drink. There they might continue to take their food from other people's mouths, with the chance now and then of a strong anti-slavery clergyman well barbecued, a luxury for which they have howled for many a year. That is the place for your oligarchic pauper, where the elements ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various

... entertain the owners of hothouses as it promptly closes the crushing trap at the end of its sensitive leaves over a hapless fly, and the common sundew that tinges the peat-bogs of three continents with its little reddish leaves, belong to a distinct class of carnivorous plants which actually masticate their animal food, depending upon it for nourishment as men do upon cattle slaughtered in an abattoir. Darwin's luminous account of these two species alone, which occupies over three hundred absorbingly interesting pages of his "Insectivorous Plants" ...
— Wild Flowers, An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and - Their Insect Visitors - - Title: Nature's Garden • Neltje Blanchan

... last event had produced so deep an impression upon his mind, that he preferred shivering all night by the banks of the torrent to sleeping near our comfortable fire; and as to eating of the delicate food before him, it was out of the question; he would suck it, but not masticate nor swallow it; his stomach and his teeth refused to accomplish their functions upon the abhorred meat; and he solemnly declared that never again would he taste beef—cow or calf—- tame or wild—even if ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... in the long run beneficial to the race in general in securing thereby the survival of the fittest. Mr S. Dedalus' (Div. Scep.) remark (or should it be called an interruption?) that an omnivorous being which can masticate, deglute, digest and apparently pass through the ordinary channel with pluterperfect imperturbability such multifarious aliments as cancrenous females emaciated by parturition, corpulent professional gentlemen, not to speak of jaundiced politicians and chlorotic ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... this rendezvous in the forest's heart I had my first sight of any fighting fragment of that undisciplined and yet unconquerable patriot home-guard that even in defeat proved too tough a morsel for British jaws to masticate. ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... hope, in such manner that he shall himself be insensible to the process. But unless I make each one of them understood and appreciated by my ingenious, open-hearted, rapid reader,—by my reader who will always have his fingers impatiently ready to turn the page,—he will, I know, begin to masticate the real kernel of my story with ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope

... reward S. T. C. for the most singular act of virtue that we have ever heard imputed to man or boy—to 'saint, to savage, or to sage'—viz., the act of eating beans and bacon to a large amount. The stress must be laid on the word large; because simply to masticate beans and bacon, we do not recollect to have been regarded with special esteem by the learned vicar; it was the liberal consumption of them that entitled Samuel to reward. That reward was one penny, so that in degree of merit, after all, the service may not have ranked high. But what ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... is marked by pain and stiffness of the tongue, particularly when the patient attempts to masticate or to speak. The tongue rapidly swells, and in the course of twenty-four or forty-eight hours may fill the mouth and protrude beyond the teeth. There is profuse salivation, and in addition to difficulty in swallowing and speaking there may be considerable interference with respiration. The salivary ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... Sir John," the captain cried, without ceasing to masticate, "and make no bones of it. To own the fact, the latter are almost as good as the flesh. I never ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper

... looked in during lounging hours, being students of law, physic, and divinity, half-pay ensigns, and theatrical understrappers, to replenish their boxes with Lundyfoot, whiff a Havannah cigar, or masticate pigtail. No wonder that she was spoiled by flattery, Miss Diana, for she was a bit of a beauty; and though she had but one eye—by heavens, what ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 339, Saturday, November 8, 1828. • Various

... feeders and have sharp, uneven, smooth or diseased teeth are unable to masticate the feed properly. This results in unthriftiness caused by imperfect digestion and assimilation of the feed. Such animals usually suffer from a catarrhal or chronic inflammation of the intestine, and may have periodic attacks of ...
— Common Diseases of Farm Animals • R. A. Craig, D. V. M.

... researches of the most prying naturalists have not been able to procure a crumb of information. That the barber does eat can only be inferred; it cannot be proved, for no person was ever known to catch him in the act; if he does masticate, he munches ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 1, September 18, 1841 • Various

... the above at three this morning. I regret to say that the whole of the skin of about an inch square above my upper lip has come off, so that I cannot even shave or masticate, and I am equally unfit to appear at your table, and to partake of its hospitality. Will you therefore pardon me, and not mistake this rueful excuse for a 'make-believe,' as you will soon recognise whenever I have the pleasure of meeting you again, and I will call the ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... an instant, from being a scorner of conjugal domesticity, he became a scorner of the bachelor's existence, with its immeasurable secret ennui hidden beneath the jaunty cloak of a specious freedom—freedom to be bored, freedom to fret, and long and envy, freedom to eat ashes and masticate dust! He would marry her. Yes, he was saved, because he was loved. And he meant to be worthy of his regenerate destiny. All the best part of his character came to the surface and showed in his face. But ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... "This is too much for me!" No matter how tired you are this work will do you more good than any medicines. You are not to take medicines without telling me about it. You are not to eat between meals; you are not to take any liquids with your meals. Masticate your food carefully. Don't bolt your meals in a hurry. Take time to eat properly. Don't sleep more than eight hours. Don't dance half the night away. You must look out for your health while you are training. Some of you are underweight, because you are ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn



Words linked to "Masticate" :   mumble, grate, chaw, gnaw, gum, jaw, knead, grind, manducate, crunch, champ, work, chew, mastication, chomp, munch



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