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Biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow
Answer for the clue "Biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow ", 11 letters:
mastication
Word definitions for mastication in dictionaries
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physiology English) The process of chew. 2 The process of crushing as though chewed.
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Mastication or chewing is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth . It is the first step of digestion , and it increases the surface area of foods to allow more efficient break down by enzymes . During the mastication process, the food ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., from Old French masticacion and directly from Latin masticationem (nominative masticatio ), noun of action from masticare "to chew" (source of Old French maschier , French mâcher ), probably from a Greek source related to mastikhan "to gnash ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow [syn: chew , chewing , manduction ]
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mastication \Mas`ti*ca"tion\, n. [L. masticatio: cf. F. mastication.] The act or operation of masticating; chewing, as of food. Mastication is a necessary preparation of solid aliment, without which there can be no good digestion. --Arbuthnot.
Usage examples of mastication.
The symptoms are numerous and may arise from simple causes such as too hurried meals and insufficient mastication of the food.
The most delicate and dangerous act he had performed to date had been the daily mastication of Mrs.
But that Aline--his Aline--should have to deny herself the exercise of that mastication of rich meats which, together with the gift of speech, raises man above the beasts of the field---- That was what tortured George.
Take a mouth intended for mastication and salivation, pass air from the respiratory system through it, vibrate that air by interposing the cords intended by nature to seal off the lungs when under stress, and you had the basis of the human speech mechanism.
Instead of true teeth, the entire inner mouth was composed of a sort of flexible horny growth which probably served for mastication when and if necessary.
Mingling their mumblings with his own mastications, thousands on thousands of sharks, swarming round the dead leviathan, smackingly feasted on its fatness.