anatomize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cut apart (an animal or plant) to show or examine the position, structure, and relation of the parts; display the anatomy of; dissect.
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to examine in great detail; analyze minutely.
The couple anatomized their new neighbor.
verb
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to dissect (an animal or plant)
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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
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
And with these two pricks of her needle she left them both more or less discomfited, and went to scrutinize and anatomize her mistress's heart with plenty of cunning, but no mercy.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 by Various
Over the last quarter-century, the book as physical organism has been increasingly anatomized, and there has been no better medium for displaying anatomists’ findings than the book itself.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2022
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
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
We want not to see water anatomized; the Alps may be tomahawked and scalped by geologists, yet may they be sorry painters.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. by Various
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
She has always had plenty to say about that, but now she is more interested in anatomizing all the forces that carved her into the woman she is today.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2021
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
Yet, in truth, she had no notion of anatomizing her thoughts or feelings.
From A Canadian Heroine, Volume 1 A Novel by Mrs. Harry Coghill
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