Definition of "macerate"

macerate

/ˈmæs.ə.ɹeɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present macerates, present participle macerating, simple past and past participle macerated
1. To soften (something) or separate it into pieces by soaking it in a heated or unheated liquid.
2. (archaic) To make lean; to cause to waste away.
  Quotations
  Baal scuttles with ten tailsBetween as many legs as he could carry—Perhaps Thomas poking through the holesAnd finding resolution beyond the scalesAnd incorporeal pain of the hammered Messiah,Immaculately macerated God.
  2006, David Tibet; Michael Cashmore (lyrics and music), “The Dissolution Of The Boat ‘Millions Of Years’”, in Black Ships Ate the Sky, performed by Current 93
3. (obsolete) To subdue the appetite by poor or scanty diet; to mortify.
4. (obsolete) To mortify the flesh in general.
  Quotations
  “My dear child, how are you employed?” I knew the voice of the Superior, and I replied, “My father, I was sleeping.” “And I was macerating myself at the foot of the altar for you, my child,—the scourge is red with my blood.” I returned no answer, for I felt the maceration was better merited by the betrayer than the betrayed.
  1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], page 243
noun
plural macerates
1. A macerated substance.