eviscerate

American  

[ih-vis-uh-reyt, ih-vis-er-it, -uh-reyt] / ɪˈvɪs əˌreɪt, ɪˈvɪs ər ɪt, -əˌreɪt /

verb (used with object)

• eviscerates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• eviscerated,
  past participle,  past
• eviscerating
  present participle

1. to remove the entrails from; disembowel.

   to eviscerate a chicken.

2. to deprive of vital or essential parts.

   The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the leaders of the party.

3. Surgery. to remove the contents of (a body organ).

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eviscerate British  

/ ɪˈvɪsəˌreɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to remove the internal organs of; disembowel

2. (tr) to deprive of meaning or significance

3. (tr) surgery to remove the contents of (the eyeball or other organ)

4. (intr) surgery (of the viscera) to protrude through a weakened abdominal incision after an operation

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adjective

1. having been disembowelled

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• evisceration
  noun
• eviscerator
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• eviscerating
  present
• eviscerated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• eviscerate
  simple
• eviscerates
  simple
• have eviscerated
  perfect
• has eviscerated
  perfect
• am eviscerating
  progressive
• are eviscerating
  progressive
• is eviscerating
  progressive
• have been eviscerating
  perfect progressive
• has been eviscerating
  perfect progressive

Past

• eviscerated
  simple
• had eviscerated
  perfect
• was eviscerating
  progressive
• were eviscerating
  progressive
• had been eviscerating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will eviscerate
  simple
• will have eviscerated
  perfect
• will be eviscerating
  progressive
• will have been eviscerating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of eviscerate

First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin ēviscerātus, past participle of ēviscerāre “to deprive of entrails, tear to pieces,” equivalent to ē- e- ¹ + viscer(a) viscera + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

Eviscerate is not a pretty word. To eviscerate can mean to remove the entrails of a creature. On the Discovery Channel you can watch a vulture eviscerate or take out the guts of a dead animal. The word eviscerate comes from the Latin eviscerare, meaning "to disembowel." It's not strictly used in such a gruesome sense though. Sure, you can eviscerate a chicken by gutting its insides, but eviscerate can also be used to describe when you deprive something of its most important quality. If you take away the disco ball, it could eviscerate the spirit of your dance party.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

eviscerate eviscerates eviscerated eviscerating

If something went awry, as things generally did, Jobs would find a scapegoat to eviscerate, preferably in front of everyone else.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026

He turns around and uses that wealth and power in order to eviscerate the very thing that helped create him.

From Slate ● Aug. 1, 2025

“This is a gross and exploitative attempt by Robbie Robertson’s children to eviscerate their father’s expressed wishes for his beloved wife Janet.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2024

Melt caves will eviscerate more and more glaciers—creating lakes that could release devastating floods.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 10, 2024

He didn’t know anyone who could eviscerate someone with words quite like Aunt Hila.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

Without a single scene of jungle combat, “Absolution” eviscerates the systems behind the Vietnam War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2023

Popular culture — an important element in his work, whether he embraces or eviscerates it — evaded him while he was growing up.

From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021

Pierceson Coody steps in first and tees his ball, then eviscerates a drive that, when it finally lands, bounces and disappears over a ripple in the fairway some 315 yards away.

From Golf Digest ● Dec. 2, 2019

She eviscerates moral philosophers who believe that moral rules can be utterly divorced from biology and find a foundation based on reasoning alone.

From Nature ● May 27, 2019

It falls upon the tiny Crickets, eviscerates them, and devours them with frantic greed.

From Social Life in the Insect World by Bernard Miall

But she’s overwrought in saying Section 2 is now eviscerated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

And this influencer, with a sharp blond bob and glass skin, is trying on jackets at a small-town Goodwill, where the merchandise has not yet been eviscerated by other consumers completing their own “hauls.”

From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2026

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2025

Just a few years after welfare reform eviscerated the social safety net and proclaimed the era of “personal responsibility,” Silliker retrofitted the church annex and opened a free medical clinic.

From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2025

They'll be quoted, parsed, fact-checked, eviscerated by those who disagree, and then forgotten in the wake of new blurbs that come out tomorrow.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

But while Justice Beale was eviscerating of Patterson on Monday, Mr Wilkinson was his characteristically gracious self.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025

Season 2 follows many of the same formulas, replete with eviscerating comebacks from Daddy’s Little Viper.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2025

Sarah Paulson’s Daring Characters: The actress has received a Tony nomination for “Appropriate,” in which she portrays a woman who makes a sport out of verbally eviscerating her family members.

From New York Times ● May 19, 2024

In announcing the Eugene outlet, Doctor noted that like Santa Cruz, “the area has seen the result of chain ownership eviscerating a once-well-established daily,” The Register-Guard.

From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024

Thus caught between two fires the casuists developed a highly ingenious method, not unlike that of the Roman Stoics, for eviscerating the substance of a rule while leaving its shadow carefully intact.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 4 "Carnegie Andrew" to "Casus Belli" by Various