macerate
verb
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Macerate is derived from the Latin verb macerare, which means "to soften" or "to steep," and, in Late Latin, can also mean "to mortify (the flesh)." Macerate first entered English in the mid-1500s to refer both to the wasting away of flesh especially by fasting and to softening or steeping. A few other manifestations sprouted thereafter from the word's figurative branch (e.g., the 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne once wrote of "a city so macerated with expectation"); however, those extensions wilted in time. Today, the "steeping" and "soaking" senses of macerate saturate culinary articles (as in "macerating fruit in liquor") as well as other writings (scientific ones, for instance: "the food is macerated in the gizzard" or "the wood is macerated in the solution").
Examples of macerate in a Sentence
Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 11 May 2025
Great on their own, over yogurt, or better yet, macerated and served over ice cream, in cakes and as the star of the strawberry shortcake, strawberries are completely craveable.
—Stacey Lastoe, Southern Living, 28 Apr. 2025
And there are several other fields of inquiry about how to fine-tune the time and quality of macerating grape pulp (cryomaceration, for example, or flash détente ).
—IEEE Spectrum, 24 Oct. 2017
Hartford Courant Another option is to install an above-ground macerating toilet.
—Tim Carter, Hartford Courant, 12 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for macerate
Cite this Entry
“Macerate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/macerate. Accessed 28 May. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
macerate
1 of 2 verb
macerate
2 of 2 noun
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