cannibalize.

1. To remove usable parts from one thing so they can help build or repair another.

2. To weaken one organization or activity by taking resources needed to support another.

3. To take material from an earlier work or another creator and use it in a new work.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• cannibalize a machine
• cannibalize for spare parts
• cannibalized components

On the page

They cannibalized the last working lift to keep the pumps running.

The radios had been cannibalized for parts long before the station was abandoned.

The new archive survived by cannibalizing the staff and budget of the museum.

Each emergency cannibalized another part of the service until nothing stable remained.

She cannibalized the abandoned novel for the voices in her final play.

Usage notes

Verb: cannibalize, cannibalizes, cannibalized, cannibalized, cannibalizing. UK cannibalise is a spelling variant of this lexeme. Usually transitive in senses 1–5; literal practice-of-cannibalism sense is intransitive. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common in practical, business, and critical writing (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).