Egested

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have discharged waste materials that arose from digestion while eliminating unwanted substances from the body
2. To have expelled processed content from the gastrointestinal tract by releasing it as waste
3. Released material that the body no longer needs after digestion through the process of expelling waste

Etymology: "Egested" is the past tense and past participle of "egest," and the verb's history begins with Latin "ēgerō," meaning "to carry, bear, or bring out or away," or "to discharge." The Latin verb combined "ex-," meaning "out," with "gerere," meaning "to carry" or "to bear," so its core sense is simply moving something outward. The word's concrete image of carrying something out of a place is still visible in its modern use. English took the verb directly from the past participle "ēgestus," so the sense of removing something from the body after digestion is a narrowing of that broader Latin idea of carrying or discharging out. The word is a fairly technical one, and it is used mainly in physiology and biology, where a precise term for expelling undigested or waste material is useful.

Synonyms: excreted, expelled