Absorbable
to suck up or drink in (a liquid); soak up:
a sponge absorbs water.
to swallow up the ident-ty or individuality of; incorporate:
the empire absorbed many small nations.
to involve the full attention of; to engross or engage wholly:
so absorbed in a book that he did not hear the bell.
to occupy or fill:
this job absorbs all of my time.
to take up or receive by chemical or molecular action:
carbonic acid is formed when water absorbs carbon dioxide.
to take in without echo, recoil, or reflection:
to absorb sound and light; to absorb shock.
to take in and utilize:
the market absorbed all the computers we could build. can your brain absorb all this information?
to pay for (costs, taxes, etc.):
the company will absorb all the research costs.
archaic. to swallow up.
historical examples
mineral oils (refined paraffine) also are not absorbable, and they act with benefit in some cases.
diet and health lulu hunt peters
their action is very similar to the action of giant cells in the soft tissues about absorbable foreign bodies.
surgery, with special reference to podiatry maximilian stern
verb (transitive)
to soak or suck up (liquids)
to engage or occupy (the interest, attention, or time) of (someone); engross
to receive or take in (the energy of an impact)
(physics) to take in (all or part of incident radiated energy) and retain the part that is not reflected or transmitted
to take in or -ssimilate; incorporate
to accept and find a market for (goods, etc)
to pay for as part of a commercial transaction: the distributor absorbed the cost of transport
(chem) to cause to undergo a process in which one substance, usually a liquid or gas, permeates into or is dissolved by a liquid or solid: porous solids absorb water, hydrochloric acid absorbs carbon dioxide compare adsorb
v.
early 15c., from middle french absorber (old french -ssorbir, 13c.), from latin absorbere “to swallow up,” from ab- “from” (see ab-) + sorbere “suck in,” from pie root -srebh- “to suck, absorb” (cf. armenian arbi “i drank,” greek rhopheo “to sup greedily up, gulp down,” lithuanian srebiu “to drink greedily”). figurative meaning “to completely grip (one’s) attention” is from 1763. related: absorbed; absorbing.
absorb ab·sorb (əb-sôrb’, -zôrb’)
v. ab·sorbed, ab·sorb·ing, ab·sorbs
to take in by absorption.
to reduce the intensity of transmitted light.
Read Also:
- Absorbable gelatin film
absorbable gelatin film absorbable gelatin film ab·sorb·a·ble gelatin film (əb-sôr’bə-bəl, -zôr’-) n. a sterile, nonantigenic, absorbable, water-insoluble film, used in the closure and repair of defects in membranes.
- Absorbable suture
absorbable suture absorbable suture n. a surgical suture that is composed of a material that is digestible by tissues of the body.
- Absorbance
the capacity of a substance to absorb radiation, expressed as the common logarithm of the reciprocal of the transmittance of the substance. noun (physics) a measure of the light-absorbing ability of an object, expressed as the logarithm to base 10 of the reciprocal of the internal transmittance see transmittance absorbance ab·sorb·ance (əb-sôr’bəns, -zôr’-) or ab·sorb·an·cy […]
- Absorbancy
the capacity of a substance to absorb radiation, expressed as the common logarithm of the reciprocal of the transmittance of the substance. noun (physics) a measure of the light-absorbing ability of an object, expressed as the logarithm to base 10 of the reciprocal of the internal transmittance see transmittance absorbance ab·sorb·ance (əb-sôr’bəns, -zôr’-) or ab·sorb·an·cy […]
- Absorbed
deeply interested or involved; preoccupied: he had an absorbed look on his face. to suck up or drink in (a liquid); soak up: a sponge absorbs water. to swallow up the ident-ty or individuality of; incorporate: the empire absorbed many small nations. to involve the full attention of; to engross or engage wholly: so absorbed […]