What does dismember mean?

Definitions for dismember
dɪsˈmɛm bərdis·mem·ber

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word dismember.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. dismemberverb

    separate the limbs from the body

    "the tiger dismembered the tourist"

  2. dismember, take apart, discerpverb

    divide into pieces

    "our department was dismembered when our funding dried up"; "The Empire was discerped after the war"

Wiktionary

  1. dismemberverb

    To remove the limbs of.

    Death by drawing and quartering usually dismembered the condemned person.

  2. dismemberverb

    To cut or otherwise divide something into pieces.

  3. Etymology: desmembrer, from des- + membre + -er

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To Dismemberverb

    To divide member from member; to dilacerate; to cut in pieces.

    Etymology: dis and member.

    I am with both, each army hath a hand;
    And in their rage, I having hold of both,
    They whirl asunder, and dismember me. William Shakespeare, King John.

    O, that we then could come by Cæsar’s spirit,
    And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas!
    Cæsar must bleed for it. William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar.

    A state can never arrive to its period in a more deplorable crisis, than when some prince lies hovering, like a vulture, to devour, or dismember its dying carcass. Jonathan Swift.

    Fowls obscene dismember’d his remains,
    And dogs had torn him on the naked plains. Alexander Pope, Odyssey.

    Those who contemplate only the fragments or pieces of science, dispersed in short unconnected discourses, without relation to each other, can never survey an entire body of truth, but must always view it as deformed and dismembered. Isaac Watts.

Wikipedia

  1. dismember

    Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicide, but can occur as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of the limbs, dismemberment is often fatal. In criminology, a distinction is made between offensive dismemberment, in which dismemberment is the primary objective of the dismemberer, and defensive dismemberment, in which the motivation is to destroy evidence.In 2019, Michael H. Stone, Gary Brucato and Ann Burgess proposed formal criteria by which "dismemberment" might be systematically distinguished from the act of "mutilation", as these terms are commonly used interchangeably. They suggested that dismemberment involves "the entire removal, by any means, of a large section of the body of a living or dead person, specifically, the head (also termed decapitation), arms, hands, torso, pelvic area, legs, or feet". Mutilation, by contrast, involves "the removal or irreparable disfigurement, by any means, of some smaller portion of one of those larger sections of a living or dead person. The latter would include castration (removal of the testes), evisceration (removal of the internal organs), and flaying (removal of the skin)." According to these parameters, removing a whole hand would constitute dismemberment, while removing or damaging a finger would be mutilation; decapitation of a full head would be dismemberment, while removing or damaging a part of the face would be mutilation; and removing a whole torso would be dismemberment, while removing or damaging a breast or the organs contained within the torso would be mutilation.

ChatGPT

  1. dismember

    Dismember refers to the act of cutting, tearing, or removing the limbs, appendages or parts of a body, often in a violent or gruesome manner. While it is commonly used to describe such acts done to a corpse or body, it can also be used metaphorically to describe the act of breaking something down into smaller parts.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Dismemberverb

    to tear limb from limb; to dilacerate; to disjoin member from member; to tear or cut in pieces; to break up

  2. Dismemberverb

    to deprive of membership

Wikidata

  1. Dismember

    Dismember was a Swedish death metal band that formed in 1988. They split up in October 2011.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Dismember

    dis-mem′bėr, v.t. to divide member from member: to separate a limb from the body: to disjoint: to tear to pieces.—ns. Dismem′berment; Dismem′brator. [O. Fr. desmembrer, des—L. dis, neg., membre, a member.]

Suggested Resources

  1. dismember

    Song lyrics by dismember -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by dismember on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce dismember?

How to say dismember in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of dismember in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of dismember in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of dismember in a Sentence

  1. Raphael Warnock:

    You can not remember Martin Luther King Jr. and dismember him at the same time.

  2. Geoffrey Berman:

    Ray put a knife to one male victimsthroat, brandished a knife and threatened to dismember another male victim, grabbed a third male victim around the neck until he passed out, slapped a female victim and grabbed another female victim by her head before shoving her to the ground, after enduring Rays abuse, seven of his victims falsely confessed to having harmed or attempted to harm Ray. Ray, who sometimes recorded these false confessions, then used these false confessions to extort money from his victims.

  3. Kristian Saucier:

    Out of the blue Appellate Court decided to come after Ron for Barack Obama license for a year, the window I have for my lawsuit, and they announced it after we announced my case, it’s a liberal court system … trying to dismember my legal defense. It’s a shame, it’s retribution. They’ve backed us into a corner so that I wo n’t be able to file the lawsuit.

  4. Geoffrey Berman:

    Ray put a knife to one male victims throat, brandished a knife and threatened to dismember another male victim, grabbed a third male victim around the neck until he passed out, slapped a female victim and grabbed another female victim by her head before shoving her to the ground, after enduring Rays abuse, seven of his victims falsely confessed to having harmed or attempted to harm Ray. Ray, who sometimes recorded these false confessions, then used these false confessions to extort money from his victims.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

dismember#100000#105773#333333

Translations for dismember

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for dismember »

Translation

Find a translation for the dismember definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"dismember." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dismember>.

Discuss these dismember definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for dismember? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    dismember

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    an onerous or difficult concern
    A lumberman
    B flair
    C crate
    D encumbrance

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for dismember: