Definition of "digestion" []

• Physiology The process by which food is converted into substances that can be absorbed and assimilated by the body. It is accomplished in the alimentary canal by the mechanical and enzymatic breakdown of foods into simpler chemical compounds. (noun)
• Physiology The result of this process. (noun)
• Physiology The ability to digest food. (noun)
• The process of decomposing organic matter in sewage by bacteria. (noun)
• Assimilation of ideas or information; understanding. (noun)

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.

• "I use the term "digestion" to describe the widespread dismantling, rearrangement and assimilation of a less powerful civilization into a dominant one."
• "Nero bids me say, not to feel hurt should he show little joy at seeing you, as his digestion is all deranged since he has been here, with the constant crumbs of "suet and plums" that fall to/his/share."
• "While the object of digestion is assimilated by being destroyed, the object of knowledge is assimilated precisely by being preserved in its own existence."