Definition of "cannibalize" [cannibalize]

• To remove serviceable parts from (damaged airplanes, for example) for use in the repair of other equipment of the same kind. (verb-transitive)
• To deprive of vital elements or resources, such as personnel, equipment, or funding, for use elsewhere: "It becomes necessary to cannibalize unsuccessful projects to fund those which can proceed” ( Daily Report for Executives). (verb-transitive)
• To draw on as a major source: "cannibalizes the lives of his wife and friends for his second-rate novels” ( Washington Post). (verb-transitive)
• To practice cannibalism on. (verb-transitive)
• To practice cannibalism. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "You cannibalize and that's why we use the term cannibalize because that's exactly what is happening not only to us, but to others."
• "The problem is that banks may be reluctant to "cannibalize" on their overdraft fee income with lower-cost loans, Bair wrote in a 2005 report when she taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst."
• "And now we arrive at a juncture where the budget crisis ostensibly is being used as cover to "cannibalize" the state's education system, quite possibly in an irreparable manner."