Verb

To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in and use up.

* (rfdate) :

Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.

* (rfdate) :

The large cities absorb the wealth and fashion.

(obsolete) To engulf, as in water; to swallow up.

*

To suck up; to drink in; to imbibe; as a sponge or as the lacteals of the body; to chemically take in.

(transitive, physics, chemistry) To take in energy and convert it, as

# (physics) in receiving a physical impact or vibration without recoil.

# (physics) in receiving sound energy without repercussion or echo.

# (physics) taking in radiant energy and converting it to a different form of energy, like heat.

Heat, light, and electricity are absorbed in the substances into which they pass.

To engross or engage wholly; to occupy fully; as, absorbed in study or in the pursuit of wealth.

To occupy or consume time.

Assimilate mentally.

(business) To assume or pay for as part of a commercial transaction.

To defray the costs.

To accept or purchase in quantity.

Verb

To drink slowly, small mouthfuls at a time.

* 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 5

He held out to me a bowl of steaming broth, that filled the room with a savour sweeter, ten thousand times, to me than every rose and lily of the world; yet would not let me drink it at a gulp, but made me sip it with a spoon like any baby.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=5 citation , passage=A waiter brought his aperitif, which was a small scotch and soda, and as he sipped it gratefully he sighed.
   ‘Civilized,’ he said to Mr. Campion. ‘Humanizing.’ […] ‘Cigars and summer days and women in big hats with swansdown face-powder, that's what it reminds me of.’}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

To drink a small quantity.

* (John Dryden)

[She] raised it to her mouth with sober grace; / Then, sipping , offered to the next in place.

To taste the liquor of; to drink out of.

* (John Dryden)

They skim the floods, and sip the purple flowers.

(Scotland, US, dated)

(Webster 1913)