digest

From Middle English digesten, from Latin dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“carry apart”), from dī- (for dis- (“apart”)) + gerō (“I carry”), influenced by Middle French digestion. Partly displaced native Old English meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both “to melt, to digest,” whence Modern English melt.

• enPR: dī-jĕstʹ, də-jĕstʹ, IPA^(key): /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst/, /dəˈd͡ʒɛst/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛst

digest (third-person singular simple present digests, present participle digesting, simple past and past participle digested)

1. (transitive) To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application.

   to digest laws

   • 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres

     joining them together and digesting them into order

   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:

     We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested.

2. (transitive) To separate (the food) in its passage through the alimentary canal into the nutritive and nonnutritive elements; to prepare, by the action of the digestive juices, for conversion into blood; to convert into chyme.
3. (transitive) To think over and arrange methodically in the mind; to reduce to a plan or method; to receive in the mind and consider carefully; to get an understanding of; to comprehend.
   • 1566, Henry Sidney, letter to Philip Sidney

     Feelingly digest the words you speak in prayer.

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:

     How shall this bosom multiplied digest / The senate's courtesy?

   • 1549 March 7​, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, The Booke of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacramentes, […], London: […] Edowardi Whitchurche […], OCLC 56485293:

     Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.

4. To bear comfortably or patiently; to be reconciled to; to brook.
   • 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk - Toleration-Norwegians

     I never can digest the loss of most of Origen's works.

5. (transitive, chemistry) To expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a preparation for chemical operations.
6. (intransitive) To undergo digestion.

   I just ate an omelette and I'm waiting for it to digest.

7. (medicine, obsolete, intransitive) To suppurate; to generate pus, as an ulcer.
8. (medicine, obsolete, transitive) To cause to suppurate, or generate pus, as an ulcer or wound.
9. (obsolete, transitive) To ripen; to mature.
   • 1662, Jeremy Taylor, The Measures and Offices of Friendship

     well-digested fruits

10. (obsolete, transitive) To quieten or reduce (a negative feeling, such as anger or grief)

• (distribute or arrange methodically): arrange, sort, sort out
• (separate food in the alimentary canal):
• (think over and arrange methodically in the mind): sort out
• (chemistry, soften by heat and moisture):
• (undergo digestion):

From Latin dīgesta, neuter plural of dīgestus, past participle of dīgerō (“separate”).

• enPR: dīʹjĕst, dīʹjəst, IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪd͡ʒɛst/, /ˈdaɪd͡ʒəst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛst

digest (plural digests)

1. That which is digested; especially, that which is worked over, classified, and arranged under proper heads or titles
2. A compilation of statutes or decisions analytically arranged; a summary of laws.

   Comyn's Digest

   the United States Digest

3. Any collection of articles, as an Internet mailing list including a week's postings, or a magazine arranging a collection of writings.

   Reader's Digest is published monthly.

   The weekly email digest contains all the messages exchanged during the past week.

4. (cryptography) The result of applying a hash function to a message.

• (compilation of statutes or decisions analytically arranged): The term is applied in a general sense to the Pandects of Justinian, but is also specially given by authors to compilations of laws on particular topics.

• gisted, tidges

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /di.ʒɛst/

digest m (plural digests)

1. digest (collection of articles)

• “digest”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Latin dīgestus.

digest m (oblique and nominative feminine singular digeste)

1. digested

From English digest.

digest n (plural digesturi)

1. digest (publication)