Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To remove the entrails from.
  • transitive verb To deprive of meaning or substance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To deprive of the bowels, or of parts analogous to the bowels; eviscerate: as, to disembowel a carcass; to disembowel a book by tearing out leaves.
  • To wound in the abdomen in such a manner as to permit the bowels to protrude or escape, as in suicide by hara-kiri.
  • To take or draw from the bowels, as the web of a spider.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To take or let out the bowels or interior parts of; to eviscerate.
  • transitive verb rare To take or draw from the body, as the web of a spider.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To take or let out the bowels or interior parts of; to eviscerate.
  • verb To take or draw from the body, as the web of a spider.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb remove the entrails of

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

dis- +‎ embowel

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Examples

  • I learned the word "disembowel" at age 5 because of him.

    kevynwight Diary Entry kevynwight 2000

  • R. Allen Stanford says he has a wallet full of useless credit cards, three suits, an attorney he can't pay and an enormous amount of frustration and anger over the way he's seen the government "disembowel" the financial empire it took him 25 years to build.

    chron.com Chronicle 2009

  • Even Mother Theresa, given the chance, would disembowel one with a clean mayoko giri.

    Michael Jones: 13 Assassins: Review Michael Jones 2011

  • Peel and disembowel your squirrel (purist torturers may wish to do this before the bludgeoning, as it can improve the flavour).

    Archive 2009-02-01 Dungeekin 2009

  • My guess is it will be either when they disembowel Dimon with a rusty, dull hacksaw, or when they tie Dimon to the 4 horses.

    Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » New Names, Same Old Enemies 2010

  • Even Mother Theresa, given the chance, would disembowel one with a clean mayoko giri.

    Michael Jones: 13 Assassins: Review Michael Jones 2011

  • Peel and disembowel your squirrel (purist torturers may wish to do this before the bludgeoning, as it can improve the flavour).

    Musings on Squirrels Dungeekin 2009

  • They did not quite endorse "dismember and disembowel" as a workable alternative.

    Beyond Repeal And Replace Tom Miller 2010

  • He twisted up one leg, and with the foot (or hind-hand) made so savage an onslaught upon my abdomen as to threaten to disembowel me.

    CHAPTER V 2010

  • Even Mother Theresa, given the chance, would disembowel one with a clean mayoko giri.

    Michael Jones: 13 Assassins: Review Michael Jones 2011

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