cannibalizev.
/ˈkanᵻbəlʌɪz/, /ˈkanᵻbl̩ʌɪz/, U.S. /ˈkænəbəˌlaɪz/ 1.
a. transitive. To overwhelm, destroy, or eat away at, as if by cannibalism; to crush or manipulate (a person). Also reflexive.In later use perhaps influenced by sense 2a.
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1655 J. Cook Let. in MS Rawlinson A. 189 f. 390 The Poor People were Canabalized & their fflesh torn from their Backs in the Courts of Justice.
1823 John Bull 15 Dec. 394/1 We are just organizing an effective militia, to prevent our being cannibalised by the efforts of Messrs. Wilberforce, Stephen and Macaulay.
1953 Prairie Schooner 27 148 The business civilization, instead of building on the rock of affluence in the eighteen-nineties and early nineteen-hundreds, chose to eat inwardly and cannibalize its soul.
1976 J. Morris Mad Tulloch i. v. 31 Men who argue ‘reasonably’ that we've got t'cannibalize one another so that they can live in skyscraper hotels.
1989 B. Ehrenreich Fear of Falling ii. 76 The middle-class is the only class that routinely cannibalizes its young—denies them an adult-level income till near middle age, exploits their labour, and ignores or appropriates their creative contributions.
1991 Details Dec. 153/1 Marcus examines how society cannibalizes and then regurgitates its heroes.
1994 M.E.A.T. Sept. 19/2 You just end up cannibalizing yourself if you sit there brooding, thinking about how crappy everything is.
2012 Toronto Star (Nexis) 28 Oct. a8 If you are a legitimate businessman..you are squeezed out unless you want to actually engage in that sort of activity, on the black market... The middle class is being cannibalized.
b. transitive. literal. Of a person: to eat the flesh of (another); (of an animal) to feed on the flesh of (a member of the same species). Also intransitive.
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1851 Knickerbocker Nov. 508 We all marched in like whipped and naughty children, smothering revenge enough to have cannibalized the old Xantippe.
1873 M. E. Braddon Lucius Davoren I. i. 13 The Maories cannibalised from the beginning of time, fed in and in, as well as bred in and in.
1918 Inst. Q. 30 June 37 The tribe fearing to lose their king attacked the party and his mother was murdered and cannibalized.
1973 Daily Tel. 3 Mar. 3/1 David refused to join the pilot in cannibalizing the dead, saying in particular that he could not eat his aunt.
1980 Dædalus Spring 142 Analysis revealed fantasies about cannibalizing his own father, a primitive version of plagiary.
1997 Navy News July 28/3 One guide..was suspected of being responsible for killing and cannibalising other members of the party.
2010 E. O. Wilson Anthill xxi. 207 The nurse ants killed and cannibalized the last of the larvae and pupae, their own baby sisters.
2.
a. transitive. figurative. To absorb or destroy (something of a similar kind); spec. in Business to reduce the sales of or market for (a product) by introducing another similar product; (of a company) to acquire and absorb (a smaller company).
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1920 Logansport (Indiana) Pharos Tribune 12 Apr. 4/2 The Herald and the Examiner were combined, the Herald having previously cannibalized the Record, the Times, and the Inter-Ocean.
1977 Blair & Ketchum's Country Jrnl. May 76/2 The farm, more than 600 acres during the war, has cannibalized itself down to 190 acres or so to pay the taxes.
1989 U.S. News & World Rep. 26 June 11/1 New ones hook consumers..often cannibalizing the sales of existing competitors rather than drawing non-mallgoers.
1994 Time 25 July 49/3 The Big Three created the conditions they now deplore by saturating their markets with dealerships: ‘There are too many of us. By crowding us in like Dairy Queens, you cannibalize the price, cannibalize the service, cannibalize the reputation of the dealer.’
2015 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 6 Jan. b3 The new service would not cannibalize the company's current business because its current offerings do not appeal to Sling TV's target audience.
b. transitive. To use (something) as a source of parts or content for another of a similar kind; to take (a part) from one thing to use in another. Also intransitive.
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the world > action or operation > advantage > usefulness > use (made of things) > use or make use of [verb (transitive)] > re-use > as part of something else
cannibalize1942
1942 Stars & Stripes (London ed.) 26 Nov. 2 (caption) A wrecked French plane is ‘cannibalized’—that is, parts are stripped from it for use on damaged Allied ships.
1944 Ld. Alanbrooke Diary 4 Apr. in War Diaries (2001) 537 He is worried about reinforcements..and the necessity to cannibalize.
1974 E. Bowen Henry & Other Heroes i. 16 He even made a self-propelled cart out of a plank, a set of express-wagon wheels and a gasoline engine cannibalized from an old Maytag washing machine.
1980 M. Z. Bradley Darkover Retrosp. in Planet Savers/Sword of Aldones (1982) 306 I was cannibalizing some unpublished stories in my masses of juvenilia.
2014 Radio Times 26 Apr. (South/West ed.) 83/3 They buy two cars and cannibalise the rust bucket for parts to restore the other.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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