ab-sorbĕo, bui, rarely psi, ptum (absorbui, Plin. 9, 35, 58: absorpsi, Luc. 4, 100; cf. Vel. Long. 2233 P.), 2, v. a., to swallow down any thing, to devour.
- I. Lit.: unda legiones, Naev. B. Pun. 4, 16: oceanus vix videtur tot res tam cito absorbere potuisse, Cic. Phil. 2, 27, 67: placentas, Hor. S. 2, 8, 24; so id. ib. 2, 3, 240 K. and H. (al. obsorbere and exsorbere): unionem, Plin. l. l. (Sill. ob-): res ad victum, to devour, Cic. Rep. 2, 5.
- II. Trop., to engross, absorb: hunc absorbuit aestus gloriae, Cic. Brut. 81; so id. Leg. 2, 4, 9: ipse ad sese jamdudum vocat, et quodam modo absorbet orationem meam, and, as it were, eats up my discourse (i. e. wishes it to treat of him only), id. Sest. 6, 13: ea (meretrix) acerrume aestuosa absorbet, devours (i. e. squanders one’s property, the figure taken from the sea), Plaut. Bacch. 3, 3, 67.