macerate

Verb

macerate (third-person singular simple present macerates, present participle macerating, simple past and past participle macerated)

1. To soften (something) or separate it into pieces by (or as if by) soaking it in a heated or unheated liquid.
2. To reduce solids to small pieces (in a macerator).
   • Near-synonyms: comminute, crush, pulverize

   Synonyms:

   comminute, crush, pulverize

3. (archaic) 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,2006, David Tibet; Michael Cashmore (lyrics and music), “The Dissolution Of The Boat ‘Millions Of Years’”, in Black Ships Ate the Sky, performed by Current 93
4. (obsolete) To subdue the appetite by poor or scanty diet; to mortify.
5. (obsolete) To mortify the flesh in general.
   • “My dear child, how are you employed?” I knew the voice of the Superior, and I replied, “My father, I was sleeping.” “And I was macerating myself at the foot of the altar for you, my child,—the scourge is red with my blood.” I returned no answer, for I felt the maceration was better merited by the...1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 243

Noun

UK/ˈmæs.ə.ɹɪt/

macerate (plural macerates)

1. A macerated substance.