dismember
Americanverb (used with object)
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to deprive of limbs; divide limb from limb.
The ogre dismembered his victims before he ate them.
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to divide into parts; cut to pieces; mutilate.
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to reduce, reorganize, or discontinue the services or parts of (a company, government agency, etc.).
Our business was dismembered by the conglomerate that bought it.
verb
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to remove the limbs or members of
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to cut to pieces
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to divide or partition (something, such as an empire)
Other Word Forms
- dismemberer noun
- dismemberment noun
- nondismemberment noun
Etymology
Origin of dismember
1250–1300; Middle English dismembren < Anglo-French, Old French desmembrer, equivalent to des- dis- 1 + -membrer, verbal derivative of membre member
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“If the President’s House is left dismembered throughout this dispute, so too is the history it recounts, and the City’s relationship to that history,” Rufe wrote.
From Los Angeles Times
"The French do not expect from the Macron leadership that it dismembers our overseas territories behind their backs," she said, describing the territories as "true levers of power, influence and economic development".
From Barron's
“There he tinkered with dismembered clocks and toasters, and the pathos of dismantled gears, springs and wires infected him with a tenderness for mechanisms that spill their guts for all the world to see.”
From Los Angeles Times
Only, sometimes, these cadavers are not truly donated — and the dead person never consented to have their body dismembered.
From Salon
Now the dismembered statue has become a symbol of a city - and a nation - struggling to reckon with its darkest chapters.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
