Di*gest" (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Digested; p. pr. & vb. n.
Digesting.] [L. digestus, p. p. of digerere to
separate, arrange, dissolve, digest; di- = dis- +
gerere to bear, carry, wear. See Jest.]
1. To distribute or arrange methodically; to
work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or
application; as, to digest the laws, etc.
Joining them together and digesting them into
order.
Blair.
We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
digested.
Shak.
2. (Physiol.) To separate (the food)
in its passage through the alimentary canal into the nutritive and
nonnutritive elements; to prepare, by the action of the digestive
juices, for conversion into blood; to convert into chyme.
3. To think over and arrange methodically in
the mind; to reduce to a plan or method; to receive in the mind and
consider carefully; to get an understanding of; to
comprehend.
Feelingly digest the words you speak in
prayer.
Sir H. Sidney.
How shall this bosom multiplied digest
The senate's courtesy?
Shak.
4. To appropriate for strengthening and
comfort.
Grant that we may in such wise hear them [the
Scriptures], read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest
them.
Book of Common Prayer.
5. Hence: To bear comfortably or patiently;
to be reconciled to; to brook.
I never can digest the loss of most of Origin's
works.
Coleridge.
6. (Chem.) To soften by heat and
moisture; to expose to a gentle heat in a boiler or matrass, as a
preparation for chemical operations.
7. (Med.) To dispose to suppurate, or
generate healthy pus, as an ulcer or wound.
8. To ripen; to mature. [Obs.]
Well-digested fruits.
Jer.
Taylor.
9. To quiet or abate, as anger or
grief.
Di*gest" (?), v. i. 1.
To undergo digestion; as, food digests well or
ill.
2. (Med.) To suppurate; to generate
pus, as an ulcer.
Di"gest (?), n. [L. digestum,
pl. digesta, neut., fr. digestus, p. p.: cf. F.
digeste. See Digest, v. t.] That
which is digested; especially, that which is worked over, classified,
and arranged under proper heads or titles; esp. (Law),
A compilation of statutes or decisions analytically arranged.
The term is applied in a general sense to the Pandects of Justinian
(see Pandect), but is also specially given by authors to
compilations of laws on particular topics; a summary of laws; as,
Comyn's Digest; the United States Digest.
A complete digest of Hindu and Mahommedan laws
after the model of Justinian's celebrated Pandects.
Sir W. Jones.
They made a sort of institute and digest of
anarchy, called the Rights of Man.
Burke.