lacerated
Americanadjective
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mangled; jagged; torn.
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pained; wounded; tortured.
lacerated sensibilities.
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Botany, Zoology. having the edge variously cut as if torn into irregular segments, as a leaf.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lacerated
Explanation
If skin is lacerated, it's deeply cut or badly torn. After falling hard on your skateboard, you can tell your knees are lacerated by the blood seeping through your jeans. Doctors use the word lacerated to describe particularly jagged wounds or cuts. If your skin is lacerated, it needs to be disinfected and possibly even stitched up. If you have a painful mishap on your unicycle, you're more likely to call your injury a "cut" or "wound," but when you go to the emergency room, they'll describe your arm as lacerated. The Latin root means "tear to pieces" or "mangle."
Vocabulary lists containing lacerated
Dreaming in Cuban
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Dragon's Gate
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Serafina and the Twisted Staff
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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.
"I'm convinced that if my nerve was lacerated tomorrow I would have our implant put in," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026
Judge Cote lacerated the plaintiff attorneys for cherry-picking evidence and ignoring studies that have found no causal link.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 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
Rookie second-round pick Luke Musgrave, the Packers’ starting tight end to open the season, has missed the last six games with a lacerated kidney.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2024
So that at eight in the morning half the town was in the square, where Father Nicanor chanted the gospels in a voice that had been lacerated by his pleading.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
