Definition of "hydrogenate" []

• To combine with or subject to the action of hydrogen, especially to combine (an unsaturated oil) with hydrogen to produce a solid fat. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "Industrial food processing has discovered a more efficient way to prolong shelf life of products: hydrogenate the fatty acids, destroying the EFAs."
• "Sabatier was given the prize for developing a method to hydrogenate organic compounds in the presence of metallic catalysts."
• "I won't bore you with the chemistry, but the trans forms of fats are lower in energy and are thermodynamically favored when and if the fat molecules rearrange, so it is a challenge to hydrogenate oils without having them do this."