cannibalization \ ˌka-nə-bə-lə-ˈzā-shən \ noun
Did You Know
During World War II, military personnel often used salvageable parts from disabled vehicles and aircraft to repair other vehicles and aircraft. This sacrifice of one thing for the sake of another of its kind must have reminded some folks of cannibalism by humans and animals, because the process came to be known as cannibalizing. The armed forces of this time were also known to cannibalize-that is, to take away personnel from-units to build up other units. It didn't take long for this military slang to become civilianized. Since its demobilization, the term has been used in a variety of contexts.
Recent Examples on the Web
//Usually, larger galaxies cannibalize smaller galaxies.
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Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Spooky 'face' spotted in space by Hubble," 28 Oct. 2019
//In 2015, an Animal Behavior study found that males use their sense of smell to avoid mating with hungry females—contrary to popular belief, females only cannibalize their mates around 2 percent of the time.
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Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, "Male Black Widow Spiders Find Potential Mates by Following Other Suitors’ Trails," 2 Aug. 2019
//The Western Conference stars could very well cannibalize themselves as the league’s arms race continues, and the East continues to bleed talent at a rapid rate.
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Michael Shapiro, SI.com, "2020 MVP Primer: Examining the Favorites, Dark Horses and Longshots," 23 July 2019
//As a result, some maintenance crews have turned to cannibalizing some F-35s for parts to keep others operational.
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Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, "Some F-35s gathering dust waiting for repair parts," 1 June 2018
//Aggressiveness can be determined based on their speed, attackers pursuing prey, cannibalizing male spiders as well as eggs and their vulnerability to the invasion of predatory spiders.
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Ashley Strickland, CNN, "Hurricanes lead to more aggressive spiders, study says," 19 Aug. 2019
//But, says Henkes, at some point delivery cannibalizes existing restaurants.
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Author: Laura Reiley, Anchorage Daily News, "We’ve just lived through the greatest period of restaurant growth in U.S. history. Here’s why it’s ending.," 22 July 2019
//But, says Henkes, at some point delivery cannibalizes existing restaurants.
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Laura Reiley, Washington Post, "A new book explains the sudden death of the golden age of dining out in America," 9 July 2019
//Some residents said the neighborhood doesn’t need any more retail and that the new shops would cannibalize the businesses in Laurel Village, which has several vacant storefronts.
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J.k. Dineen, SFChronicle.com, "Huge housing and retail redevelopment of UCSF’s Laurel Heights campus gets key SF approval," 6 Sep. 2019
First Known Use of cannibalize
1873, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1
Dictionary Entries near cannibalize
More Synonyms and Antonyms ofcannibalize
to remove parts from a machine, car, etc., to repair or build another one
- He cannibalized one washing machine to fix another.
- Many parts of the engine were cannibalized from older cars.
More Definitions forcannibalize
: to remove parts from a machine, car, etc., to repair or build another one