lacerate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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
Related Words
See maim.
Other Word Forms
- lacerability noun
- lacerable adjective
- laceration noun
- lacerative adjective
- self-lacerating adjective
- unlacerating adjective
Etymology
Origin of lacerate
1535–45; from Latin lacerātus, past participle of lacerāre “to tear up” (derivative of lacer “mangled”); -ate 1
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.
“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.
Judge Cote lacerated the plaintiff attorneys for cherry-picking evidence and ignoring studies that have found no causal link.
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
Despite those assurances, she and her agency have been the subject of lacerating critiques from Carter, the federal judge.
From Los Angeles Times
One of the most lacerating fictional critiques of the American dream remains the song “Remember My Forgotten Man” and its accompanying set piece in Busby Berkeley’s “Gold Diggers of 1933.”
From Los Angeles Times
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.
