CANNIBALIZE

verb (-ized; -izing) Date: 1943 transitive verb 1. to take salvageable parts from (as a disabled machine) for use in building or repairing another machine, to make use of (a part taken from one thing) in building, repairing, or creating something else, to deprive of an essential part or element in creating or sustaining another facility or enterprise , to use or draw on material of (as another writer or an earlier work) , to take (sales) away from an existing product by selling or being sold as a similar but new product usually from the same manufacturer, intransitive verb to practice cannibalism, to ~ one unit for the sake of another of the same kind, cannibalization noun