Definitions

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

  • verb Present participle of sever.
  • noun The act by which something is severed.

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

  • noun the act of severing

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I returned to the sawing process, and at the end of half an hour succeeded in severing the rope.

    YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF 2010

  • Slavery was so systematic in severing all the links with Africa, that African Americans became perhaps second only to Native Americans as genuinely American people with no real investment in the past, in the place of origin.

    Black Enough? : Kwame Dawes : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • The Supremes overstepped their authority in severing a recount of the results which has subsequently shown that W lost in Florida.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast PM: July 5, 2006 2006

  • BERGEN: Well, a senior U.S. official that -- military official I've talked to used the phrase severing out al Qaeda from the Taliban is like picking gray hairs out of your head particularly in Pakistan.

    CNN Transcript Sep 7, 2006 2006

  • I returned to the sawing process, and at the end of half an hour succeeded in severing the rope.

    Yellow Handkerchief 1905

  • Tamyris swings at it next, her greatsword severing its arm at the shoulder.

    Session 1: Every New Beginning « Love | Peace | Ohana 2008

  • But critics argue that the entire child-welfare network must approach the idea of severing parents 'rights as aggressively as it now approaches family reunification.

    Why Leave Children With Bad Parents? 2008

  • A chain holding a group of satyrs parted as he swayed to the side, his sword severing several links.

    Odyssey Moore, Vance 2001

  • A chain holding a group of satyrs parted as he swayed to the side, his sword severing several links.

    Odyssey Moore, Vance 2001

  • Spakiots of Crete; the aspirations of Ali Pacha, who conceived the idea of severing his connection with the Sultan and assuming the independent government of Albania; the impunity with which the Klephts or pirates pursued their calling in the Levant, all combined to demonstrate the real weakness of the Turkish rule, and at last brought about a national rising.

    Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir Lady Biddulph of Ledbury

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