adjective
noun
-
a less common word for digestant
-
short for digestive biscuit
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of digestive
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French digestif < Latin dīgestīvus, equivalent to dīgest ( us ) ( see digest) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Anything that's digestive has something to do with the body's process of breaking down food. A stomach ache can be a sign of digestive problems — or just nervousness about the first day of school. Your digestive system is made up of all the body parts that contribute to taking large pieces of food and breaking them into water-soluble bits that are eventually absorbed into your bloodstream. Sometimes this adjective describes food that's meant to help in this process, like digestive mints and digestive biscuits. As a noun it simply means "food or medicine that aids digestion." If you're overfull after Thanksgiving dinner, your grandmother might suggest you take a digestive.
Vocabulary lists containing digestive
Life Science: Human Systems
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Life Science II
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Vocabulary from Readings, Unit 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
However, this was somewhat offset by areas like pain relief and digestive health, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Signals from the digestive system may also help determine which food-related experiences become memories.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
The gut microbiome consists of trillions of bacteria that live in the digestive system and affect many aspects of health, including the way the body experiences pain.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
The first signs of colorectal cancer can be mild, vague, or easy to mistake for common digestive problems.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
“I do hope that Miss Trixie does appear,” he said after he had finished the first sandwich and emitted a series of belches which sounded as if they had disintegrated his digestive tract.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
The boss of the biscuits factory where McVitie's chocolate digestives have been made for the last 100 years reckons people have always eaten them incorrectly.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025
Historically, digestives were made with wholemeal, a combination of fine bran and white flour.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2022
The British brand McVitie’s even has a dunking expert, Stuart Farrimond, and he claims that dunking digestives in a milky drink releases more flavor than you’d get from a dry one.
From Washington Post ● May 10, 2022
Photograph: John Raoux/AP During the reluctant but necessary leanness of January, only emergency digestives and coffee chocs remaining amid a crinkly, post-apocalyptic emptiness, the Redwall books are entirely off my menu.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 10, 2013
Hence one does not break one's fast by taking them or any other medicines, unless one were to take digestives, with a fraudulent intention, in great quantity and by way of food.
From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
