from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
transitive verb To cut, tear, or pull off the limbs of.
transitive verb To divide into pieces.
from The Century Dictionary.
To separate the members of; divide limb from limb; tear or cut in pieces; dilacerate.
To strip of members or constituent parts; sever and distribute the parts of; take a part or parts from: as, to dismember a kingdom.
To withdraw or exclude from membership, as of a society or body; declare to be no longer a member.
Synonyms and
To disjoint, pull a part, break up.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
transitive verb To tear limb from limb; to dilacerate; to disjoin member from member; to tear or cut in pieces; to break up.
transitive verb obsolete To deprive of membership.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
verb transitive To remove the limbs of.
verb transitive To cut or otherwise divide something into pieces.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
verb separate the limbs from the body
verb divide into pieces
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English dismembren, from Old French desmembrer, from Vulgar Latin *dismembrāre : Latin dis-, dis- + Latin membrum, limb; see member.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Old French desmembrer, from des- ("de-") + membre ("limb") + -er ("verbal suffix")
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Examples
I know they 'cheat' on them to make them easier to "dismember" as my kids and I used to say, but it's still aggravating when you encounter them in print.
The alternative is to kill the fetus in the uterus and then dismember it, removing it piece by piece, with each intrusion into the uterus running the risk of perforating the uterus and increasing the danger of infection.
When the dust settled in the pre-dawn darkness Saturday, the House passed a CR that is less a spending guide than a policy manifesto to gut, dismember, defund or derail protections we've relied upon for years, if not decades.
When the dust settled in the pre-dawn darkness Saturday, the House passed a CR that is less a spending guide than a policy manifesto to gut, dismember, defund or derail protections we've relied upon for years, if not decades.
seanahan commented on the word dismember
Should the opposite of dismember be remember?
October 22, 2007
skipvia commented on the word dismember
It is, in a certain sense anyway. Remembering is the act of reassembling memories.
October 22, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word dismember
No, it should be datmember.
Ahuh! Huhhuh! < -- upper-class twit laugh.
October 22, 2007
uselessness commented on the word dismember
It should be Frankenstein, which is totally a verb by the way.
October 23, 2007
travismcdermott commented on the word dismember
1297 R. GLOUC. (1724) 559 Most reuthe it was ido, That sir Simon the olde man demembred was so.
April 30, 2008
dontcry commented on the word dismember
Dismember is a member who no longer is a member due to ill-repute -- the member has been dissed.
April 30, 2008