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
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To tear; to rend; to separate by tearing; to mangle. To afflict; to torture.
- adj. Rent; torn; mangled.
- adj. 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
- Middle English laceraten, from Latin lacerāre, lacerāt-, from lacer, torn.
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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allisonsmythe's list
evocative words
drizzle, limn, statis, tendril, wanderlust, scatter, ennui, lacerate, penumbra, eclipse, hazard, drench
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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 22 more...
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