lacerate
/ˈlasəreɪt
/verb [with object]
1Tear or make deep cuts in (flesh or skin): the point had lacerated his neck (as adjective lacerated) his badly lacerated hands and knees...
- Pain filled her mind as she felt her skin being lacerated and heard the crack of the whip.
- So they made us put stones in our shoes and ropes around our waists which lacerated our skin.
- He had a further accident lacerating his tendons and breaking his left wrist.
Synonyms
cut (open), gash, slash, tear, rip, rend, mangle, mutilate, maim, maul, shred, score, scratch, scrape, graze, incise;
knife, gouge, split, cleave, hack, stab, tear apart, butcher, savage, wound, injure, hurt, damage
hurt, wound, distress, pain, harrow, torture, torment, crucify, tear to pieces/shreds
1.1Criticize forcefully or severely: her true venom seems reserved for the media itself as she lacerates our obsession with celebrity (as adjective lacerating) a lacerating critique of the war...
- Lacerated in the press, he eventually incinerated his drawings.
- He would tell me who I was, and his judgment was lacerating, merciless.
- Three weeks ago, the former Fine Gael minister deliverd a lacerating attack on his former colleagues in this newspaper.
Derivatives
lacerable
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin lacerat- 'mangled', from the verb lacerare, from lacer 'mangled, torn'.