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absorb

[ab-sawrb, -zawrb]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR absorb ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to suck up or drink in (a liquid); soak up: A sponge absorbs water.

to swallow up the identity 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.

Origin of absorb

1480–90; < Latin absorbēre, equivalent to ab- ab- + sorbēre to suck in, swallow

Related formsab·sorb·a·ble, adjectiveab·sorb·a·bil·i·ty, nounnon·ab·sorb·a·bil·i·ty, nounnon·ab·sorb·a·ble, adjectiveo·ver·ab·sorb, verb (used with object)pre·ab·sorb, verbre·ab·sorb, verb (used with object)un·ab·sorb·a·ble, adjective

Can be confusedabsorb adsorb

Synonyms for absorb

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR absorb ON THESAURUS.COM

2. assimilate, consume, devour, engulf; destroy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for absorb

swallow, consume, ingest, incorporate, get, assimilate, learn, understand, follow, employ, involve, imbibe, blot, ingurgitate, devour, grasp, sense, digest, comprehend, obsess

Examples from the Web for absorb

Contemporary Examples of absorb

Similar reinforced plinths were developed by the Getty museums in Los Angeles to absorb the seismic movements there.
Florence Preps ‘David’ for the Big One
Barbie Latza Nadeau
December 25, 2014
In the book, you say “Absorb youth and you will be absorbed by youth.”
George Clinton on Industry ‘Mobsters’ and How Nobody Wants to Listen to a Crackhead
Curtis Stephen
November 19, 2014
But the details of this massacre have been especially difficult to absorb.
Anatomy of a Mexican Student Massacre
Jason McGahan
October 8, 2014
It gave me license to pore over raw tape, again and again, to absorb the subtle clues of human behavior.
We Interrupt This Broadcast: How a TV Producer Learned to Write Fiction
George Lerner
September 9, 2014
“I welcome China to Africa because Africa is big enough to absorb China,” he said.
The American Elite Embraces a New Africa at D.C. Summit
Eleanor Clift
August 6, 2014

Historical Examples of absorb

Accordingly he tried to absorb himself in his thoughts and listen to nothing.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
And meanwhile what began to interest and absorb me were sources--testimony.
A Writer's Recollections (In Two Volumes), Volume I
Mrs. Humphry Ward
Does she suppose wounds of different kinds to "absorb" each other, so to speak?
A Tangled Tale
Lewis Carroll
These absorb the nourishment and turn it over to the embryo.
The Meaning of Evolution
Samuel Christian Schmucker
He watched Pederson absorb that, too; he saw the excitement grow.
We're Friends, Now
Henry Hasse

British Dictionary definitions for absorb

absorb

verb (tr)

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 assimilate; incorporate

to accept and find a market for (goods, etc)

to pay for as part of a commercial transactionthe 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 solidporous solids absorb water; hydrochloric acid absorbs carbon dioxide Compare adsorb

Derived Formsabsorbability, nounabsorbable, adjective

Word Origin for absorb

C15: via Old French from Latin absorbēre to suck, swallow, from ab- 1 + sorbēre to suck

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for absorb

v.

early 15c., from Middle French absorber (Old French assorbir, 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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

absorb in Medicine

absorb

[əb-zôrb′]

v.

To take in by absorption.

To reduce the intensity of transmitted light.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.