dismember
/dɪsˈmɛmbə
/verb [with object]
1Cut off the limbs of (a person or animal): he watched a doctor dismember the body (as adjective dismembered) a dismembered corpse...
- The decision to dismember the body and deposit the parts in Galveston Bay, is highly incriminating.
- In hospitals, doctors dismember their patients.
- It's one thing to watch people being dismembered on screen.
Synonyms
disjoint, joint, cut off the limbs of;
pull apart, cut up, chop up, break up, dissect, divide, segment;
mutilate, hack up, butcher, tear limb from limb
rare limb
2Partition or divide up (a territory or organization): the winning powers of World War I set out to dismember the Ottoman Empire...
- Austria-Hungary lost 1.3 million military lives and the victorious western Allies dismembered its empire.
- The European empires were dismembered by nationalist movements, with support from lawyers, journalists, unions, and the churches.
- Germany, too, was dismembered, divided, stripped of colonies, bankrupted by war reparations, forced to confess full moral guilt for the war.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French desmembrer, based on Latin dis- 'apart' + membrum 'limb'.