lacerate
verb (used with object)
to tear roughly; mangle.
self-lacerating
-
a word derived from
lacerate.
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.
“You don’t want to live through this, per se,” she suggests about Fiona Apple’s anxieties, which the singer bares in “The Idler Wheel . . . ,” her self-lacerating 2012 album.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
It showed the self-lacerating depth to which irrational hate can descend, as policy advocate Heather McGhee wrote in her exceptional book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025
As the band’s main lyricist, Wood juggles the cryptic and the apparently confessional, the self-lacerating and the absurd.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2022
Get sucked into its simple, hummable melody and risk missing the song’s deft twisting of its chorus from empowerment anthem into self-lacerating critique.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 2021
It is to his credit that he did not sink into Byronic misanthropy and bitter self-lacerating scorn, or even into Heine's irreverence and persiflage.
From Weird Tales, Vol. II. by E. T. A. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus) Hoffmann
