metabolize

1. (biology, intransitive) To undergo metabolism.intransitive

2. (biology, transitive) To cause a substance to undergo metabolism.Examples: "Among the many types of juice, grapefruit stands out from the pack because it changes the way some people absorb and metabolize different drugs."; "The genes in question encode two enzymes that metabolize alcohol and its breakdown products; the two enzymes are known as alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase."transitive

3. (biology, transitive) To produce a substance using metabolism.transitive

4. (by extension, transitive) To absorb and process as if by metabolism.Examples: "We believe this to be the true way to teach zoölogy, for we doubt the value to a man of a mass of indefinite ill-digested text-book information. Occasionally an omnivore can take in every thin, and digest and so metabolize it as to organize it into healthy mental tissue. They are, however, the few."broadlytransitive