Cannibalise

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
  • intransitive verb. to eat human flesh.
  • transitive verb. to use parts of (something, such as a machine), to repair something else.
  • Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
  • verb. To eat (parts of) another of one's own species.
  • verb. To remove parts of (a machine, etc) for use in other similar machines.
  • WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
  • verb. eat human flesh
  • verb. use parts of something to repair something else
  • Word Usage
    ""(Also) I think we need to be careful about the use of the word 'cannibalise' which brings with it an imputation of bad behaviour.""
    Equivalent
    Hypernym
    Words that are more generic or abstract
    apply  consume  employ  have  ingest  
    Synonym
    Words with the same meaning