masticate

present singular third person masticates · participle present masticating · participle past masticated · past masticated

1. transitiveTo chew (usually food).

   The cow stood, quietly masticating its cud.

   5 more examples

   The fat boy rose, opened his eyes, swallowed the huge piece of pie he had been in the act of masticating when he last fell asleep, and slowly obeyed his master’s orders.

   1832, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in The Pickwick Papers

   "By tasting it, to be sure," said I, masticating a morsel that Kory-Kory had just put in my mouth.

   1892, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Typee: A Romance of the South Seas

   He resumed his meal. "I had no idea of it," he said, and masticated.

   1896, H. G. Wells, chapter 8, in The Island of Dr. Moreau

   The vegetables were not to be cooked but merely grated fine, if I could not masticate them.

   1927-1929, Mahatma Gandhi, translated by Mahadev Desai, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, published 1940

   The friends watch the two make their way between other habitués masticating, drinking, crouched in a scrum of conversation[…]

   2001, Nadine Gordimer, The Pickup

2. transitiveTo grind or knead something into a pulp.