amputate
/ˈampjʊteɪt
/verb [with object]
Cut off (a limb) by surgical operation: surgeons had to amputate her left hand...
- If tissue damage is severe, a health care provider may need to remove the tissue surgically or amputate the limb.
- The dilemma of the surgeon being asked to amputate a healthy limb is similar.
- Fire chiefs have admitted that as soldiers are unable to use cutting gear, surgeons might have to amputate limbs of car crash victims at accident scenes.
Synonyms
cut off, sever, remove (surgically), saw off, chop off, lop off, hack off, dock, cleave, hew off, shear off, slice off;
separate, part, detach, disconnect
rare dissever, abscise
Derivatives
amputator
- Still, at least losing him won't endanger the very defence of our nation, in danger as it is of being overrun by foreign hoards, be they limb amputators, celibate pixies or harpoon-wielding Eskimos.
- The sight of paratroopers and Gurkhas on the streets of Freetown sent a signal to the local population that they should not lose hope, that they would be offered protection from Sankoh's amputators.
- The allegation arose because he wrote in a newspaper column that they were ‘limb amputators and women oppressors’.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from Latin amputat- 'lopped off', from amputare, from am- (for amb- 'about') + putare 'to prune'.
This is from the Latin verb amputare ‘lop off’, based on putare ‘to prune’.