Dictionary

mastication en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /mæstɪˈkeɪʃən/

Etymology

From Late Latin masticātiō, equivalent to masticate + -ion.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The process of chewing.
   • “It is no more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our meat,” I replied, for whatever the thing was, it had leaped upon our deer and was devouring it in great mouthfuls which it swallowed without mastication. The creature appeared to be a great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge, powerful tail as long as its torso, mighty hind legs and short forelegs. 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part I, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, February 1927, →OCLC, book I, page 1002:
2. (countable, uncountable) The process of crushing as though chewed.

Forms

Deriveds

muscle of mastication · remastication · demastication · premastication

Relateds

masticatory · masticate · masticator · maceration

Translations (13)

uk жування (process of chewing) · fi mastikaatio (process of chewing) · bg дъвчене (process of chewing) · ro masticație (process of chewing) · pt mastigação (process of chewing) · fr mastication (process of chewing) · fi pureskelu (process of chewing) · ja 咀嚼 (process of chewing) · es masticación (process of chewing) · ro mestecare (process of chewing) · ga cogaint (process of chewing) · de Mastikation (process of chewing) · it masticazione (process of chewing)