absorb
pronunciation
How to pronounce absorb in British English:
UK [əbˈzɔːb]
How to pronounce absorb in American English:
US [əbˈzɔːrb]
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- Verb:
- become imbued
- take up mentally
- take up, as of debts or payments
- take in, also metaphorically
- cause to become one with
- suck or take up or in
- engross (oneself) fully
- assimilate or take in
- engage or engross wholly
Word Origin
- absorb
- absorb: [15] Absorb comes, via French absorber, from Latin absorbēre, a compound verb formed from the prefix ab- ‘away’ and sorbēre ‘suck up, swallow’. Words connected with drinking and swallowing quite often contain the sounds s or sh, r, and b or p – Arabic, for instance, has surāb, which gave us syrup – and this noisy gulping seems to have been reflected in an Indo- European base, *srobh-, which lies behind both Latin sorbēre and Greek ropheín ‘suck up’.
- absorb (v.)
- early 15c., from Middle French absorber (Old French assorbir, 13c.), from Latin absorbere "to swallow up," from ab- "from" (see ab-) + sorbere "suck in," from PIE root *srebh- "to suck, absorb" (cognates: Armenian arbi "I drank," Greek rhopheo "to sup greedily up, gulp down," Lithuanian srebiu "to drink greedily"). Figurative meaning "to completely grip (one's) attention" is from 1763. Related: Absorbed; absorbing.
Synonym
Example
- 1. They also re-emit some of the heat they absorb .
- 2. So they were well able to absorb big losses .
- 3. Change the towels again and again until they no longer absorb moisture .
- 4. Foreign brands can absorb another lesson as well .
- 5. Big financial institutions managed to absorb the gains from trading and risk-taking while socialising their losses .