3. To appropriate and transform or incorporate into the substance of the assimilating body; to absorb or
appropriate, as nourishment; as, food is assimilated and converted into organic tissue.
Hence also animals and vegetables may assimilate their nourishment.
Sir I. Newton.
His mind had no power to assimilate the lessons.
Merivale.
Assimilate
(As*sim"i*late), v. i.
1. To become similar or like something else. [R.]
2. To change and appropriate nourishment so as to make it a part of the substance of the assimilating
body.
Aliment easily assimilated or turned into blood.
Arbuthnot.
3. To be converted into the substance of the assimilating body; to become incorporated; as, some kinds
of food assimilate more readily than others.
I am a foreign material, and cannot assimilate with the church of England.
J. H. Newman.
Assimilation
(As*sim`i*la"tion) n. [L. assimilatio: cf. F. assimilation.]
1. The act or process of assimilating or bringing to a resemblance, likeness, or identity; also, the state of
being so assimilated; as, the assimilation of one sound to another.
To aspire to an assimilation with God.
Dr. H. More.
The assimilation of gases and vapors.
Sir J. Herschel.
2. (Physiol.) The conversion of nutriment into the fluid or solid substance of the body, by the processes
of digestion and absorption, whether in plants or animals.
Not conversing the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation.
Sir T. Browne.
The term assimilation has been limited by some to the final process by which the nutritive matter of the
blood is converted into the substance of the tissues and organs.
Assimilative
(As*sim"i*la*tive) a. [Cf. LL. assimilativus, F. assimilatif.] Tending to, or characterized
by, assimilation; that assimilates or causes assimilation; as, an assimilative process or substance.
Assimilatory
(As*sim"i*la*to*ry) a. Tending to assimilate, or produce assimilation; as, assimilatory organs.
Assimulate
(As*sim"u*late) v. t. [L. assimulatus, p. p. of assimulare, equiv. to assimilare. See Assimilate,
v. t.]
1. To feign; to counterfeit; to simulate; to resemble. [Obs.] Blount.
2. To assimilate. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.
Assimulation
(As*sim`u*la"tion) n. [L. assimulatio, equiv. to assimilatio.] Assimilation. [Obs.] Bacon.
Assinego
(As`si*ne"go) n. See Asinego.
Assish
(Ass"ish) a. Resembling an ass; asinine; stupid or obstinate.
Such . . . appear to be of the assich kind . . .
Udall.
