sever

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To set or keep apart; divide or separate.
2. v. To cut off (a part) from a whole.
3. v. To break up (a relationship, for example); dissolve. See Synonyms at separate.
4. v. To become cut or broken apart.
5. v. To become separated or divided from each other.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To separate; part; put or keep distinct or apart.
2. To part, sunder, or divide; separate into two or more parts: as, to sever the body or the arm at a single stroke.
3. To separate from the rest: said of a part with reference to the whole or main body of anything: as, to sever the head from the body.
4. To separate; disjoin; referring to things that are distinct but united by some tie.
5. To distinguish; discriminate; know apart.
6. In law, to disunite; disconnect; part possession of.
7. To separate; part; go asunder: move apart.
8. To make a separation or distinction; distinguish.
9. To act separately or independently.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To cut free.
2. v. intransitive To suffer disjunction; to be parted or separated.
3. v. intransitive To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To separate, as one from another; to cut off from something; to divide; to part in any way, especially by violence, as by cutting, rending, etc..
2. v. To cut or break open or apart; to divide into parts; to cut through; to disjoin.
3. v. To keep distinct or apart; to except; to exempt.
4. v. (Law) To disunite; to disconnect; to terminate.
5. v. To suffer disjunction; to be parted, or rent asunder; to be separated; to part; to separate.
6. v. To make a separation or distinction; to distinguish.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. set or keep apart
2. v. cut off from a whole