lacerate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
lacerates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
lacerated,
past participle, past
-
lacerating
present participle
-
to tear roughly; mangle.
The barbed wire lacerated his hands.
- Synonyms:
- rend
-
to distress or torture mentally or emotionally; wound deeply; pain greatly.
His bitter criticism lacerated my heart.
adjective
verb
-
to tear (the flesh, etc) jaggedly
-
to hurt or harrow (the feelings, etc)
adjective
Synonym Usage
See maim.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
lacerabilitynoun
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lacerationnoun
-
lacerableadjective
-
lacerativeadjective
-
self-laceratingadjective
-
unlaceratingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
laceratesimple
-
laceratessimple
-
have laceratedperfect
-
has laceratedperfect
-
am laceratingprogressive
-
are laceratingprogressive
-
is laceratingprogressive
-
have been laceratingperfect progressive
-
has been laceratingperfect progressive
Past
-
laceratedsimple
-
had laceratedperfect
-
was laceratingprogressive
-
were laceratingprogressive
-
had been laceratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lacerate
1535–45; from Latin lacerātus, past participle of lacerāre “to tear up” (derivative of lacer “mangled”); see -ate 1
Explanation
The verb lacerate means to cut or tear. So the envelope that gave you that nasty paper cut? It lacerated your finger. Something usually needs to be sharp or jagged to lacerate you, like broken glass or a sharp stick. You won't be getting lacerated anytime soon by lace or cotton balls, that's for sure. But watch out for sharp-tongued people hurling hateful words your way; those snide remarks and personal digs can lacerate feelings like a knife slicing through butter.
Vocabulary lists containing lacerate
"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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"The Banana Tree," Vocabulary from the short story
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David Bowie (1947-2016) Tribute List
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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:
While large shards of plastic can lacerate organ walls, the smaller particles, known as microplastics, can be just as deleterious.
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2023
When Brady doesn’t face quick pressure, he is typically able to lacerate opposing defenses with short passes.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2019
Despite the carping of her critics, Clinton does in fact lacerate herself for losing.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2017
Commercial radio did not arrive until 1920, and 1916 phonographs would lacerate 2017 sensibilities, as would 1916’s silent movies.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2017
It was as if he were determined to lacerate my feelings and lay them bare; and yet there was a certain eccentric kindness under this rough treatment, which helped to reconcile me to it.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 15, August, 1851 by Various
Baumbach’s signature serio-comic touch, in which the humor lacerates as much as the drama, should be in full effect here.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025
This summer lacerates us as we gradually accept that warnings won’t work.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2021
This left Levy feeling like the possibility of motherhood has been cut off, and she lacerates herself for imagining she had it within her power to create a new kind of improvised family.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2017
As it is, spare a thought for likely runner-up, Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea, who lacerates your heart in a fraction of Davis’ screen time.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2017
Throughout his life he seems to have made a hobby of the literature that arouses violent emotion and mental excitement, or lacerates the nerves, or shocks and startles.
From The Tale of Terror A Study of the Gothic Romance by Edith Birkhead
"I'm convinced that if my nerve was lacerated tomorrow I would have our implant put in," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
“We have been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by criminal networks that have profoundly marked the life of our country,” Zelaya wrote on X on Monday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
He left the room, returning with a metronome whose loud, mechanical clicking lacerated the otherwise-fine mood being created by a Bach record on the turntable.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2025
After sitting out three games with a lacerated liver, he returned to play in a school-record 149 plays from scrimmage this month against Stanford.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2023
I find Abuela sitting motionless on her wicker swing, wearing a worn bathing suit, her hair stuck haphazardly to her skull, her feet strangely lacerated.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
The writing in that book is sardonic and lacerating, but it doesn’t dazzle for its own sake.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
Instead, with deep feeling and lacerating and gentle words, Leigh creates a world that, like the vast, mysterious one hovering outside its frame, can seem agonizingly empty if you can’t see the people in it.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2024
“GNX” finds him back in the lane of 2017’s “DAMN.” — a mix of menacing, lyrically lacerating street cuts and dense, narrative-driven work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
"But all the while he's lacerating and battering himself about not being able to write, because, for him, writing only meant writing the novel."
From BBC ● Mar. 23, 2024
This impression was dispelled early on when a probationer in Briony’s year, a large, kindly, slow-moving girl with a cow’s harmless gaze, met the lacerating force of the ward sister’s fury.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
