cannibalise
/ˈkænɪbəlaɪz/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.41 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To remove parts of (a machine, etc) for use in other similar machines.
British usage; Transitive verb
verb
To reduce sales or market share (for one of one's own products) by introducing another.
British usage; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The female black widow spider is known to cannibalise the male."
- "to cannibalize an old laptop for parts"
- "According to our correspondent, at least one of the Type 2s has had to be cannibalised to facilitate repairs, as spares are often in short supply."
- "When the attack ceased they managed to cannibalize parts to get one truck going and set off for the rendezvous with Fraser, only to find nobody there."
- "iPad mini to cannibalize 1M full-size iPad sales."
- "When the album succeeds, such as on the swaggering, Queen-esque “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us,” it does so on The Darkness’ own terms—that is, as a random ’80s-cliché generator. But with so many tired, lazy callbacks to its own threadbare catalog (including “Love Is Not The Answer,” a watery echo of the epic “I Believe In A Thing Called Love” from 2003’s Permission To Land), Hot Cakes marks the point where The Darkness has stopped cannibalizing the golden age of stadium rock and simply started cannibalizing itself. And, despite Hawkins’ inveterate crotch-grabbing, there was never that much meat there to begin with."
Etymology
Usage
- British usage
- Transitive verb