macerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to soften or separate into parts by steeping in a liquid.
-
to soften or decompose (food) by the action of a solvent.
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to cause to grow thin.
verb (used without object)
-
to undergo maceration.
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to become thin or emaciated; waste away.
verb
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to soften or separate or be softened or separated as a result of soaking
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to break up or cause to break up by soaking
macerated peaches
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to become or cause to become thin
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
maceratesimple
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maceratessimple
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have maceratedperfect
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has maceratedperfect
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am maceratingprogressive
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are maceratingprogressive
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is maceratingprogressive
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have been maceratingperfect progressive
-
has been maceratingperfect progressive
Past
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maceratedsimple
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had maceratedperfect
-
was maceratingprogressive
-
were maceratingprogressive
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had been maceratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of macerate
1540–50; < Latin mācerātus (past participle of mācerāre to make soft, weaken, steep); see -ate 1
Explanation
When you macerate something, you soften it by soaking it in a liquid, often while you're cooking or preparing food. To macerate strawberries, all you have to do is sprinkle sugar on them, which draws out their juices so they become soft and sweet and deliciously saucy. Macerate is sometimes also used to mean "cause to grow thin or weak," or in other words, to make someone feel like a soft, squishy strawberry.
Vocabulary lists containing macerate
A Culinary Vocabulary Sampler
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Silent Spring
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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:
Since the added time with this method was completely hands-off, unless I were in a rush, I don't see why I wouldn't macerate to get the flavor boost in the future.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2021
Pour sugar over apricots and let stand for a few hours to macerate.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 30, 2020
On the extreme end, Gravner and Radikon macerate for many months, depending on the vintage.
From New York Times ● May 7, 2020
Others we macerate, often with vanilla or cardamom, but this week it’s been fennel seeds and lemon.
From The Guardian ● May 31, 2019
They macerate and digest the leaves, and aid in mixing the decomposed matter with the surface soil.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Juice from the white grapes macerates with the skins as with red wines, absorbing tannins and pigment depending on the length of the maceration.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2022
It was labeled “skin contact,” indicated the white was made like a red, in which the grape juice macerates with the pigment-laden skins before and during fermentation.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
W. C. Fields, looking worn-&-torn but as noble as Stone Mountain, macerates a boozy song around his cigar butt and puts on his achingly funny pool exhibition with warped cues.
From Time Magazine Archive
It also has an attachment which macerates the nuts so as to produce "nut butter."
From The Healthy Life Cook Book, 2d ed. by Daniel, Florence
A believer who flagellates or "macerates" himself today arouses more wonder and fear than emulation.
From Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature by James, William
She ran in place, holding hands with her stepmother, who kept slipping on the macerated mixture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
Sitting in the clubhouse, a still soaked MacIntyre gawped at the TV screen, clattered his macerated hands together in applause, and mouthed "wow" as his dream died.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
Chilaquiles made with lightly toasted corn tortillas and salsa verde; Denver omelets studded with peppers and cubed ham; oatmeal topped with a pat of butter, macerated fruit and too much cinnamon.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2022
The cookie pizza consists of three things: sugar cookie dough baked in a tart shell, homemade or good-quality store-bought ricotta cheese, and macerated strawberries.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2022
As she confided in her diary, the breakup of her previous engagement had left her “mangled and torn and castigated and macerated in soul.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Other methods exist, notably vapor infusion, whereby the botanicals, rather than macerating in the alcohol and water, are hung above, in sieves or baskets, through which the steam ascends.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 2, 2019
“It goes with everything; it’s refreshing, it gets better with a few days macerating time, it’s soft and crunchy, it’s healthy,” Kreuther says.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 16, 2019
When we first meet her, Roberta has been macerating for years.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2019
This wine is modern, in that it shows depth and extraction that suggest techniques of macerating the grapes on the skins, but, well, never mind — it’s delicious.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2019
The tubers contain a great amount of starch, which is obtained by rasping them and macerating four or five days in water, when the fecula separates in the same manner as sago.
From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William
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.
