Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To rip, cut, or tear.
- v. To cause deep emotional pain to; distress.
- adj. Torn; mangled.
- adj. Wounded.
- adj. Having jagged, deeply cut edges: lacerate leaves.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To tear roughly; mangle in rending or violently tearing apart: as, to lacerate the flesh; a lacerated wound.
- Figuratively, to torture; harrow: as, to lacerate one's feelings.
- Rent; torn: specifically applied (from natural appearance) in botany (also lacerated) to a leaf having the edge variously cut into irregular segments, and in anatomy to three foramina at the base of the cranium. See below.
Wiktionary
- v. To tear, rip or wound.
- v. To thoroughly defeat; to thrash
- adj. botany Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To tear; to rend; to separate by tearing; to mangle. To afflict; to torture.
- adj. Rent; torn; mangled.
- adj. (Bot. & Zoöl.) Jagged, or slashed irregularly, at the end, or along the edge.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having edges that are jagged from injury
- v. cut or tear irregularly
- adj. irregularly slashed and jagged as if torn
- v. deeply hurt the feelings of; distress.
Etymologies
- From Middle English laceraten, from Latin lacerātus, past participle of lacerō. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English laceraten, from Latin lacerāre, lacerāt-, from lacer, torn. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They try to perforate the uterus, to get the foetus out, but often lacerate the cervix along the way, so many bleed heavily or leave tissue in the womb which becomes infected.”
“In the final minutes of her first Supreme Court term, Justice Elena Kagan delivered a full-blast dissent, using pointed, colloquial, sometimes sarcastic language rarely seen from the court's liberal minority to lacerate the conservative majority in a campaign-finance case.”
The Wall Street Journal: Kagan Gives New Life to Court's Liberal Wing
“The star of I Love You Phillip Morris, The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind teams up with the primed-for-prime-time players to lacerate today's headline-splashing people and events.”
“Too many people are literal e.g. they removed my 2 inch swiss with nail scissors but I was given a 5 inch steel knife [not plastic which can still lacerate skin] to cut my bread, oh! well! you ‘figger’, follow blindly orders.”
Living In A Police State – (Thank Goodness). « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“When the social stakes were higher, her words could lacerate.”
“In medieval prisons, inmates were punished with a device called a "cat-o'-nine-tails" -- a whip made of nine knotted thongs of cord designed to lacerate the skin and cause intense pain.”
The Huffington Post: How Does Ringling Bros. Make Elephants Do That?
“The quick session produced no jams, no misdirected shots, and best of all, no springs flying through the air looking for a face to lacerate.”
“Blue Valentine," the auspicious directorial debut of Derek Cianfrance, can be crushing in its portrayal of how two people who truly do love each other come to lacerate and eventually devastate each other.”
The Wall Street Journal: I Love You, Brave, Bracing 'Blue Valentine'
“Seems like Obama just campaigns, and Hillary blindly mimics any action of his she thinks will get her positive publicity, while staying in attack mode (read: lie, disagree with every well-educated economic expert on economic proposals, pander for votes, campaign negatively, lacerate own party) at all other times.”
“A lacrosse ball hurts more, but at least doesn't lacerate the skin, like a cricket ball can”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lacerate’.
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Verbal_Advantage
paraphrase, ostensible, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 38 more...
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LIT - Odyssey - key words and phrases
Key words of the Odyssey by Homer in English including all those famous repeating epitethons like
"bright-eyed Athene"
"wine-dark sea"
"rosy-fingered dawn"
"long suf...Odysseus, sea, Athene, goddess, land, Achaean, wind, wave, Ithaca, lead, Poseidon, mortal and 732 more...
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allisonsmythe's list
evocative words
drizzle, limn, statis, tendril, wanderlust, scatter, ennui, lacerate, penumbra, eclipse, hazard, drench
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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Words that hurt
A collection of words that inflict pain. If you liked this, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_Money_(game)
jab, headbutt, headlock, choke, elbow, grab, kick, slap, roundhouse, spinning backfist, stomp, uppercut and 40 more...
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Something I -ate
Words in which the "-ate" suffix is used to mean "having," "resembling," "-like."
roseate, acaudate, lyrate, pinnate, acerate, falcate, pedunculate, petiolate, oblate, tessellate, spatulate, fimbriate and 158 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Verbal Advantage List
ostensible, paraphrase, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 487 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Sat Vocabulary List
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 2155 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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GRE words
ersatz, trope, obsequious, sycophantic, endemic, silviculture, impugn, indignant, squander, substantiate, repudiate, vindictive and 132 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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