Meaning & use
cannibalizing
Last updated
Taking parts from one thing to repair or build another, or, in business, reducing sales of one's own product because of competition from a similar product one also offers.
See it in a sentence
The mechanic kept an old car for cannibalizing spare parts.
The company worried that its new budget phone would end up cannibalizing sales of its flagship model.
A note on using this word
The business sense of "cannibalizing" became common in marketing language during the 20th century to describe internal competition between a company's own products.
Words with a similar meaning
scavengingstripping
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