disassimilationn.
/ˌdɪsəsɪmᵻˈleɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌdɪsəˌsɪməˈleɪʃ(ə)n/ Physiology and Biochemistry. Now rare.
The breaking down of complex chemical compounds to simpler ones by an organism's metabolic processes (= catabolism n.); an instance of this.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > metabolism > [noun] > types of
disassimilation1809
dissimilation1830
anabolism1886
catabolism1889
basal metabolism1914
hypometabolism1932
hypermetabolism1937
cryptobiosis1959
methylotrophy1972
1809 T. Watkins tr. X. Bichat Physiol. Res. Life & Death iv. 28 Nutrition is never in a state of inactivity; the double operation of assimilation and dis-assimilation from which it results, has no end but with life.
1883 Glasgow Weekly Herald 5 May 8/1 Coffee always causes an increased excretion and an augmented disassimilation.
1889 Nature 26 Sept. 525/1 The words..‘anabolism’, which..means winding up, and ‘catabolism’, running down, are the creation of Dr. Gaskell. Prof. Hering's equivalents for these are ‘assimilation’, which..means storage of oxygen and oxidizable material, and ‘disassimilation’, discharge of these in the altered form of carbon dioxide and water.
2013 S. D. Hennink & P. W. J. Maljaars in J. E. Blundell & F. Bellisle Satiation, Satiety & Control Food Intake viii. 146 In the enterocyte the process of disassimilation of fats into monomers for intestinal absorption is elegantly reversed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1809