discuss

Less common meanings

4. 4
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To deal with food or drink by consuming it; to eat or drink something heartily.

   We sat quietly down and discussed a cold fowl that we had brought with us.

   1854, Samuel White Baker, The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon

   In the first room we entered, a soldier and a man, like a clerk or dominie, were discussing a bottle of red wine; they immediately sprang up and politely proffered us each a bumper.

   1858, James Hogg, Titan

   Note

   Nineteenth-century prose used it with a wink. The narrator of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights sits in austere silence while "we discussed our meal," and Samuel White Baker discusses a cold fowl. The object is always the food or drink itself, such as a meal, a fowl or a bottle of red wine, and that is how to spot the sense. No conversation need take place. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • The consumption sense occurs in nineteenth-century prose; the description 'with a wink' is stylistic. en.wiktionary.org
   • Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights. gutenberg.org
   • The narrator describes the party eating in austere silence, using the exact words 'we discussed our meal'. gutenberg.org
   • Samuel White Baker describes consuming a cold fowl using discuss. gutenberg.org
   • Meal, fowl and a bottle of red wine are attested objects of discuss in its consumption sense. en.wiktionary.org
   • This sense does not require conversation. gutenberg.org
5. 5
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To break something to pieces; to shatter it.

   Note

   Here the Latin blow is still a literal blow. The striking apart that lies behind the everyday "talk it over" sense is applied to solid things. The sense is obsolete, and anyone using it today would almost certainly be misread, so shatter or smash says the same thing without confusion. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Discuss derives ultimately from Latin discutio, whose literal meanings include striking apart and shattering. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Latin source has the literal meaning of striking apart or shattering. en.wiktionary.org
   • Discuss has an obsolete sense meaning to break something into pieces or shatter it. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To drive away, disperse, or shake off something, especially a tumor.

   Many arts were used to discuss the beginnings of new affliction.

   1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villiers

   Note

   The physician's version of the Latin shaking apart: a remedy discussed a swelling by dispersing it rather than cutting it out. Jacques Guillemeau has wind in a child's belly "discussed with fomentations," and a correspondent in Samuel Johnson's Rambler of 1751 recalls a pomade "of virtue to discuss pimples." Spenser stretches it to the mind, describing a woman who has "discust" all regard of shame. Source

   Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • The medical sense reflects Latin discutiō's meaning of striking or shaking apart. en.wiktionary.org
   • A remedy could 'discuss' a swelling by dispersing it. en.wiktionary.org
   • Guillemeau's text describes wind troubling a child as being discussed with fomentations. en.wiktionary.org
   • Samuel Johnson's Rambler contains the quoted pomade passage in 1751. gutenberg.org
   • The wording is exact, but the speaker is the fictional correspondent Victoria, recalling her mother's beauty regimen. Calling this praise misrepresents the passage. gutenberg.org
   • Spenser describes a woman as having 'discust' all regard of shame. en.wikisource.org
7. 7
   verb

   To investigate thoroughly; especially, to use up every remedy against the principal debtor before a creditor may turn to the guarantor.