behead
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cut off the head of; kill or execute by decapitation.
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Geology. (of a pirate stream) to divert the headwaters of (a river, stream, etc.).
verb
Other Word Forms
- beheadal noun
- beheader noun
- unbeheaded adjective
Etymology
Origin of behead
before 1000; Middle English behe ( f ) den, beheveden, Old English behēafdian. See be-, head
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.
In 2017, in the process of expanding his cattle shed, Morandi Bonacossi said, the farmer managed to behead one of the monumental reliefs with a bulldozer.
From New York Times • Apr. 20, 2022
The children learned to mend their own clothing and knew how to behead and pluck a chicken.
From New York Times • Sep. 24, 2020
A love of puzzles is clear in the call to behead the bodyless Cheshire Cat: what, exactly, would you behead?
From Nature • Nov. 17, 2015
In Santa Monica, Nick Banning has gone so far as to behead his beloved bobblehead collection and place the figures in his front yard in a mock baseball game.
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2014
A woman was in the kitchen downstairs, about to behead a coconut with a scythe.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
