lacerate

English

Etymology

The verb is first attested in 1425, the adjective in 1514; inherited from Middle English laceraten, borrowed from Latin lacerātus, perfect passive participle of lacerō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• (verb): IPA^(key): /ˈlæ.sɚ.ɛɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (verb): Hyphenation: lac‧er‧ate
• (adjective): IPA^(key): /ˈlæ.sɚ.ət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

lacerate (third-person singular simple present lacerates, present participle lacerating, simple past and past participle lacerated)

1. (transitive) To tear, rip or wound.
   • 2019, “Human Target”, performed by Thy Art Is Murder:

     Machinery, surgical precision / Lacerate the limbs of the poorest of the children / Watch them scatter through the fields of departed

2. (transitive, figurative) To defeat thoroughly; to thrash.
   • 2012 September 15, Amy Lawrence, “Arsenal's Gervinho enjoys the joy of six against lowly Southampton”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     When the fixtures tumbled out of the computer for the start of a newly promoted season, Nigel Adkins must have wondered whether he had unknowingly broken any mirrors while walking under a ladder. Hot on the heels of a tough introduction to both Manchester clubs, a rampant Arsenal lacerated Southampton.

Derived terms

• lacerater
• laceratingly
• lacerative

Translations

To tear, rip or wound

• Bulgarian: разкъсвам (bg) (razkăsvam), раздирам (bg) (razdiram)
• French: lacérer (fr)
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἑλκόω (helkóō), ἀμύσσω (amússō)

• Ido: lacerar (io)
• Latin: lacerō
• Māori: whakangaeke, haehae, hae
• Russian: раздирать (ru) (razdiratʹ), рвать (ru) (rvatʹ), ра́нить (ru) (ránitʹ)
• Spanish: lacerar (es)

Adjective

lacerate (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Mangled, torn, lacerated.
   • 1542, Henry VIII, The Declaration of the just causes of the warre with the Scotts (as printed in the Grenville copy 5945 in the British Museum Library):

     But as they detrected the doing of theyr duetie, so god euer graunted vnto this realme force to compell them thervnto within memory, not withstandyng any theyr interruption by resistence, which vnto the tyme of our progenitour Henry the VI. neuer indured so longe as it made intermission within tyme of mynde, wherby the possession myght seme to be enpaired: from the tyme of Henry the VI vnto the seuenth yere of our reigne, how our realme hathe ben for a season lacerate and torne by diuersitie of titles, tyl our time and syns by warre outwardly vexed and troubled, The story is so lamentable for some parte therof, as were tedious to reherse.

   • 1805, Robert Southey, “Canto II. VIII.”, in Madoc, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and A[rchibald] Constable and Co, […], by James Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, part I (Madoc in Wales), page 255:

     But who can gaze
     Upon that other form, which on the rood
     In agony is stretched?... his hands transfixed,
     And lacerate with the body's pendent weight;

2. (botany) Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.

   The bract at the base is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex.

Derived terms

• lacerately

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

lacerate

1. inflection of lacerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

lacerate f pl

1. feminine plural of lacerato

Latin

Participle

lacerāte

1. vocative masculine singular of lacerātus

Spanish

Verb

lacerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of lacerar combined with te