- 1
To masticate is to chew food — to break it down with the teeth before you swallow. Doctors, , and careful textbooks like this word; friends almost never say it at the table. Though actually, in ordinary talk you just say chew. Masticate can sound comic or stiff if you use it for a sandwich. It is still the right verb when you need a precise, slightly scientific word, for example after mouth surgery, in an animal study, or when a teacher wants the 'proper' term. It is about the chewing action itself, not about taste or hunger.
咀嚼（偏正式、醫學；日常說 chew／嚼）
組成From Latin 'to chew', with the verb ending -ate. Another path: English made the verb from the noun mastication.
同家族的字
- masticationthe noun: the act of chewing
- masticsame old Greek chewing-root; the glue was named from a resin people chewed
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
masticateverb/ˈmæstɪkeɪt/
- 1
To chew (usually food).
- The cow stood, quietly masticating its cud.
- 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.
- 2
To grind or knead something into a pulp.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。