Dismember

//ˌdɪsˈmɛmbə(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To remove the limbs of. transitive

    "Death by drawing and quartering usually dismembered the condemned person."

  2. 2
    separate the limbs from the body wordnet
  3. 3
    To cut or otherwise divide something into pieces. transitive

    "The killer methodically dismembered the bodies of his victims."

  4. 4
    divide into pieces wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
butchercrippledefoliatedenudedetachdisassemble

Example

More examples

"It's very unusual for a killer to dismember a body."

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French desmembrer, from des- (“de-”) + membre (“limb”) + -er (“verbal suffix”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.