▪ I. † ˈmacerate, ppl. a. Obs.
[ad. L. mācerāt-us, f. mācerāre to macerate.]
Wasted, weakened: = the later macerated.
| 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 30 Macerate with labours, and made feeble with age. 1632 Womens Rights 332 Shee chuse..not a man macerate and dryed vp with study. |
▪ II. macerate, v.
(ˈmæsəreɪt)
Also 6–7 masserate, 7 mascerate.
[f. L. mācerāt-, ppl. stem of mācerāre, f. root māc-, perh. cogn. w. Gr. µάσσειν (:—*maky-, m{ncircbl}ky-) to knead. For the suffix cf. tolerāre, recuperāre. Cf. F. macérer.]
1. trans. To soften by steeping in a liquid, with or without heat; to wear away or separate the soft parts of, by steeping. Also with away. Applied also to the treatment of food in the process of digestion.
| 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 10 Macerate them [sc. lard and rose leaves] and let them stand together seuen dayes. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 133 They [sc. Pine-Apple or Nut] must first be macerated the space of an houre in warme water, and then eaten. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 129 Iron macerated with vinegar, so as it should be inflexible. 1691 Ray Creation (1714) 27 It is by the Heat thereof concocted macerated and reduced into a Chyle or Cremor. 1759 Brown Compleat Farmer 79 The gizzard that macerates their food. 1773 Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1418 The bark is rolled up, and macerated for some time in water. 1822 J. Imison Sci. & Art II. 178 Soak, or macerate the rags sufficiently. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 479/1 More complete mastication is performed after the food has been long macerated in the paunch. 1875 Darwin Insectiv. Pl. vi. 88 The leaves were macerated for some hours. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 558 In the axillary, anal and scrotal region, where the scales are often macerated away. |
| fig. 1829 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 II. 211 A good writer will not..macerate things into such particles that nothing shall be remaining of their natural contexture. |
b. intr. for pass. To undergo maceration.
| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. v, Let 'hem macerate, together. 1641 French Distill. ii. (1651) 48 Beat the spices small and bruise the Hearbs, letting them macerate twelve houres. 1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. iii. viii. 329 The ignorant Farmer cuts down his Corn and his Hay..and leaves them to macerate..in the soaking Showers. 1816 Accum Chem. Tests (1818) 81 Suffering the whole to macerate for a few hours. 1889 J. M. Duncan Lect. Dis. Wom. v. (ed. 4) 22 If the liquor amnii is not discharged it is absorbed, and the contents of the uterus either macerate or become mummified. |
2. trans. To cause (the body, flesh, etc.) to waste or wear away, esp. by fasting.
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health i. 7 Fastynge to much it dryeth and macerateth the body. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage v. xiv. 442 To..macerate his body for his owne sinnes. 1647 Clarendon Contempl. Ps. Tracts (1727) 415 Macerating our bodies with imprisonments and torments. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 282 ¶5 The Happiness of him who is macerated by Abstinence. 1830 D'Israeli Chas. I, III. vii. 135 Her frame was macerated by her secret sorrows. 1860 T. Martin Horace 24 The fierce unrest, the deathless flame, That slowly macerates my frame. 1877 C. Geikie Christ xxxiii. (1879) 385 Men who lodged in tombs and macerated themselves with fasting. |
† b. fig. To oppress, ‘crush’. Obs.
| 1637 Bastwick Litany i. 4/1 They greatly dishonour his Cesarean Maiestie, & miserably afflict and macerate [printed macecrate] his poore subiects. 1640 H. Parker Case Ship Money 46 Civill wars have..infected and macerated that goodly Country. |
† c. intr. for pass. To waste, pine away. Obs.
| 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie 1. ii. 176 Once to be pursie fat Had wont be cause that life did macerate. |
† 3. In immaterial sense: To fret, vex, worry. Obs.
| 1588 Spenser Virg. Gnat 94 No such sad cares, as wont to macerate And rend the greedie mindes of covetous men. 1591 Troub. Raigne K. Iohn (1611) 14 A viper, who with poysoned words Doth masserate the bowels of my soule. a 1695 Z. Cradock Serm. on Charity (1740) 8 Why do some Christians..macerate and torment themselves? 1761 Sterne Tr. Shandy III. iv, A city so macerated with expectation. |
▪ III. macerate, n.
(ˈmæsəreɪt)
[f. the vb., after precipitate, filtrate, etc.]
A product obtained by maceration.
| 1961 in Webster. 1974 Nature 27 Sept. 294/2 In scanning electron microscopical (SEM) investigations of Precambrian sedimentary rocks, the risk of contamination during the preparation of rock macerates is extremely high. 1975 Ibid. 20 Mar. 184/2 Nitrate production was depressed when Hyparrhenia root macerate was added to soils. |