anatomize

American  

[uh-nat-uh-mahyz] / əˈnæt əˌmaɪz /

especially British, anatomise

verb (used with object)

anatomized, anatomizing

1. to cut apart (an animal or plant) to show or examine the position, structure, and relation of the parts; display the anatomy of; dissect.

2. to examine in great detail; analyze minutely.

   The couple anatomized their new neighbor.

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anatomize British  

/ əˈnætəˌmaɪz /

verb

1. to dissect (an animal or plant)

2. to examine in minute detail

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Other Word Forms

• anatomization
  noun
• anatomizer
  noun
• anatomizable
  adjective
• unanatomizable
  adjective
• unanatomized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of anatomize

1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French anatomiser or < Medieval Latin anatomizāre. See anatomy, -ize

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

anatomize anatomized anatomizing

LuPone has two big numbers, both of which anatomize the ambivalence of married life: “The Little Things You Do Together” in the first act and “The Ladies Who Lunch” in the second.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2022

It is the lack of proximity to those stories, the immediacy of hearing loved ones talk about their own experience of this “dark winter,” that makes this darkness so difficult to comprehend and anatomize.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2020

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

As tech bloggers ripped open the latest iPhone to anatomize its guts, a ritual known as a “teardown,” you could sense deflation.

From Forbes ● Oct. 9, 2013

The town of Mansoul is well known to many, Nor are her troubles doubted of by any That are acquainted with those histories That Mansoul and her wars anatomize.

From Bunyan by James Anthony Froude

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

Over the years, his writing has anatomized commitment and relationships with a sharp eye for foibles — especially male ones.

From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2020

The conclusion to “American Notes,” of 1842, a book that won him few friends in the land that he had toured, anatomized what he had found there:

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 10, 2016

Her guitar tone is produced warmly, which makes one feel comforted even if they’re being emotionally anatomized.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2015

There are people who have split and anatomized the doctrine of free government, as if it were an abstract question concerning metaphysical liberty and necessity, and not a matter of moral prudence and natural feeling.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 02 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

Mr. Harbach has likely exposed himself to criticism by anatomizing feminist politics and assuming the perspectives of 20-something coeds, though I think his characterizations are generous and insightful.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

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

In its anatomizing of the psychodynamics of the rehearsal room, the play bears a resemblance to David Ives’s “Venus in Fur.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2015

But anatomizing their anguish, these creatures finally decided that it might not be spring fever, but merely hunger.

From Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned by Christopher Morley

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