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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



... know what joints there must be in the piece before him, and where they are situated. In butcher's meat, one rule is almost universal: the slice cut must be cut across the fibres of the meat, and not along them; a process which renders it more easy to masticate and digest. The exceptions to this rule are the fillet or under-cut in a sirloin of beef, and the slices along the bone in a saddle of mutton. In cutting a joint of meat, the strong fork is used to steady it; but in carving poultry it is the fork which is most useful in removing ...
— Routledge's Manual of Etiquette • George Routledge

... of the letter is all right," I said, "but the style wants polishing. Higgins's education will be gauged by our style. Cross out 'some toothless old people' and write 'certain edentulous persons.' Put 'masticate' instead of 'eat.' Then you must not say, 'What shall I do about it?' That sounds too helpless. You, or rather Higgins, must appear as a man of unbounded initiative and resource. You must write, 'I suggest that a special ration of soft food be issued ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Feb. 12, 1919 • Various

... on the most intimate talking terms with half a hundred young bloods and beaux, who 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, ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 339, Saturday, November 8, 1828. • Various

... unoccupied, but he can 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

... To attend to its natural wants, and by fixed routine to accustom it at stated hours to empty its bowels and its bladder is a lesson hard to teach; and not less difficult is it to make the child learn to masticate its food, to drink without slobbering, and then to use the spoon and fork, and to feed itself; and afterwards to dress itself, to wash itself, to tie its shoestrings; for idiots almost without exception are awkward ...
— The Mother's Manual of Children's Diseases • Charles West, M.D.

... of the dale a giant lorry was turning, while a waggon was creeping by. For a quarter of a precious minute the road was entirely blocked. Because of the coming ascent the check hit us hard. In a word, it made a mountain out of a molehill. What the car might have swallowed whole she had to masticate. She ate her way up ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates

... which the poets truly declare to be the father of delay. It was a doubt which arose in the mind of one of the Brahmins, who, when a doubt arose in his mind, would mumble it over and over, but never masticate, swallow, or digest it; and thus was the preservation of the royal line endangered. For years had the aspirants for regal dignity, and more than regal beauty, hovered round the court, each with his mandolin ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... 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 ...
— How to Live - Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science • Irving Fisher and Eugene Fisk

... buffaloes, and the fire: the 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

... Coleridge thought fit to 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 ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... you have feed the waiter, you have to chew your own dinner, and are benefited, not by the amount you pay for it, but only by so much of all that with which the bounteous mahogany is covered as you can thoroughly masticate, easily contain, and healthily digest. Elkanah began with the soup, so to speak. He brought all his Cape-Cod acuteness of observation to bear on his profession; lived closely, as well he might; studied attentively and intelligently; lost no hints, no precious morsels ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 26, December, 1859 • Various

... shall bring them to life again. . . . When the doctor's fee has been paid, and money (goods) saved for a feast, the Ndembo people are brought to life. At first they pretend to know no one and nothing; they do not even know how to masticate food, and friends have to perform that office for them. They want everything nice that any one uninitiated may have, and beat them if it is not granted, or even strangle and kill people. They do ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... 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 ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... wondered why it was that the Government did not reduce the forage on the mule. These persons did not for a moment suspect, or imagine, that a three year old mule has so many loose teeth in his mouth as to be hardly able to crack a grain of corn, or masticate his oats. ...
— The Mule - A Treatise On The Breeding, Training, - And Uses To Which He May Be Put • Harvey Riley

... 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 ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... contradicted him, for he broke out like one ravin' distracted mad. 'I'll be damned,' said he, 'if ever I saw a Yankee that didn't bolt his food whole like a boa constrictor. How the devil can you expect to digest food, that you neither take the trouble to dissect, nor time to masticate? It's no wonder you lose your teeth, for you never use them; nor your digestion, for you overload it; nor your saliva, for you expend it on the carpets, instead of your food. It's disgusting, it's beastly. You Yankees load ...
— The Clockmaker • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... 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 ...
— The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont - as told by Himself • Louis de Rougemont

... small, thin girl, with sandy hair and blue eyes, and a very freckled complexion. She had an enormous mouth, with terrible, square teeth set wide apart, which looked as if they could masticate an iron bar. She was dressed like Liza, in a shortish black skirt and an old-fashioned bodice, green and grey and yellow with age; her sleeves were tucked up to the elbow, and she wore a singularly dirty apron, ...
— Liza of Lambeth • W. Somerset Maugham

... man is to remain in bed until the very last moment. A hurried breakfast of food long cooked awaits the late riser, who will not masticate it properly when he finally arrives at the breakfast-table, and the best of housekeepers is discouraged and prevented from ever attempting culinary surprises, when they are not to be appreciated. In this ...
— Breakfast Dainties • Thomas J. Murrey

... the next party. If Thring succeeds in getting water, I shall still endeavour to take them on. I am yet suffering very much from scurvy; my teeth and gums are so bad that it causes me excessive pain to eat anything, and what I do eat I am unable to masticate properly, which causes me to feel very ill indeed. ...
— Explorations in Australia, The Journals of John McDouall Stuart • John McDouall Stuart

... point of the shoulder became contorted and drawn aside, and a string of boils decorated the whole length of that region. It was the most painful thing I ever remember to have endured; but, more annoying still, I could not masticate for several days, and had to feed on broth alone. For many months the tumour made me almost deaf, and ate a hole between the ear and the nose, so that when I blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six ...
— What Led To The Discovery of the Source Of The Nile • John Hanning Speke

... quite as hungry as his people, but affecting perfect indifference for the absent mutton, cut a fragment of tobacco, half an inch long, from the carotte of a sergeant who formed part of his suite, and began to masticate the said fragment, assuring his lieutenants that hunger was a chimera, and that, besides, people were never hungry when ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Chronic Indigestion, is more prevalent in this country than anywhere else on the face of the earth, the chief reason being that we eat with intemperate haste, and consequently do not, as a rule, properly masticate our food. The work that should be done by the dental mill we remit to the stomach; and, as it cannot accomplish the task, the food-grist is not properly ground up and applied, and the whole body—aye, every fibre and tissue of it—suffers. We need not here describe the pains and penalties ...
— Treatise on the Diseases of Women • Lydia E. Pinkham

... cannot be supposed to revel in the joys of hog-flesh, flesh of ox, sheep, bird or fish, no matter how excellent well cooked; and you, honourable sir, who, being comfortably replete of such, seated before your groaning board at duly frequent and regular intervals, masticate in duty to yourself and digestion, but with none of that fine fervour of enthusiasm which true hunger may bestow—I cry ye mercy! For your author, tramping the roads, weary yet aglow with exercise, ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol

... awake and smell the cake and masticate. A lovely night and no need of surprises, that is what makes it so free ...
— Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein - With Two Shorter Stories • Gertrude Stein

... will masticate the rice for a minute thoroughly and then drop the result on your leaves. I warn you that it will be deadly poison for the thief." All obeyed with alacrity, and Gobardhan, after examining the contents of each leaf, assured Jadu Babu that the ...
— Tales of Bengal • S. B. Banerjea

... in an agreement that he should stand treat that night, and Titmouse on the ensuing Sunday night. As soon as the negus had arrived, accompanied by two sea-biscuits, which looked so hard and hopeless that they would have made the nerves thrill within the teeth of him that meditated attempting to masticate them, the candle was lit; Huckaback handed a cigar to his friend; and both began to puff away, and chatter pleasantly concerning the many events ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren

... 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

... still concede 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 ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, August 1, 1917. • Various



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



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