anatomize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to cut apart (an animal or plant) to show or examine the position, structure, and relation of the parts; display the anatomy of; dissect.
-
to examine in great detail; analyze minutely.
The couple anatomized their new neighbor.
verb
-
to dissect (an animal or plant)
-
to examine in minute detail
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of anatomize
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French anatomiser or < Medieval Latin anatomizāre. See anatomy, -ize
Vocabulary lists containing anatomize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
With the pandemic-set parent-child drama “The Falls,” the prolific director pulls back from the novelistic scope of its predecessor to anatomize the evolution of an estranged bond made whole again.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2022
Vargas Llosa knows how the levers of power in his country work, and he uses his story to anatomize the degradation of civic life under Fujimori.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2018
They anatomize sunspots by way of US astronomer George Ellery Hale, who pioneered their observation with his 1889 invention of the spectroheliograph.
From Nature ● Jul. 18, 2017
Dirda’s style, likewise, is seductively transparent while being devilishly difficult to anatomize or duplicate.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 4, 2015
He might dissect, anatomize, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him.
From Frankenstein by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
British novelist John le Carré, who anatomized Cold War spycraft and sometimes even influenced it, has died after a short illness at the age of 89.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2020
At such moments, you may even feel that it’s your own cluttered, consumerist mind that’s being anatomized up there.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2019
Mills’s wife, Miranda July, a writer and filmmaker with the steely fragility of a Buster Keaton, once anatomized guys like Mills in a short story.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 1, 2017
Her guitar tone is produced warmly, which makes one feel comforted even if they’re being emotionally anatomized.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2015
Then, having satisfactorily anatomized McKinstry, he turned to the evening again with open senses, the sensitive pulsing of his wide nostrils telling that even the milky scent of the full-uddered cows gave him keen enjoyment.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 67, May, 1863 by Various
Stephen Karam’s Tony-winning play reached us with most of the original cast intact, including Reed Birney and Jayne Houdyshell, who reprised their Tony-winning performances in this family drama anatomizing the precarious plight of middle-class Americans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2018
It’s a great environment for anatomizing an uncommonly thoughtful family, which is held together by Marshall’s softly determined Barbara.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2015
Since his debut at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, critics have enjoyed anatomizing Xavier Dolan’s manic yet sublime style.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2015
Each incident of Internet straying brings its own gleeful anatomizing.
From Slate ● Feb. 1, 2013
Yet, in truth, she had no notion of anatomizing her thoughts or feelings.
From A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1 A Novel by Coghill, Harry, Mrs.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
