disgest

Corruption of digest, influenced by dis- and chest in the mistaken belief that it refers to food moving from the chest to the intestine.

disgest (third-person singular simple present disgests, present participle disgesting, simple past and past participle disgested)

1. Obsolete form of digest.
   • 1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “Of Handling, Taming, or Breaking of Horsses”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 303:

     In the morning giue them [horses] barley or prouender, a little at a time in diſtinct or ſeueral portions, tvvice or thrice one after another, ſo as he may chevv and eke diſgeſt it thoroughly, othervviſe if he rauen it, as he vvil do hauing much at a time, he rendreth it in his dung vvhole and not diſgeſted.

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     disgest the harder part

• “disgest”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• A glossary of provincial words used in Herefordshire and some of the adjoining counties, George Cornewall Lewis

• digests