The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dismember \Dis*mem"ber\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dismembered; p. pr. & vb. n. Dismembering.] [OF. desmembrer, F. d['e]membrer; pref. des- (L. dis) + OF. & F. membre limb. See Member.]
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To tear limb from limb; to dilacerate; to disjoin member from member; to tear or cut in pieces; to break up.
Fowls obscene dismembered his remains.
--Pope.A society lacerated and dismembered.
--Gladstone.By whose hands the blow should be struck which would dismember that once mighty empire.
--Buckle. -
To deprive of membership. [Obs.]
They were dismembered by vote of the house.
--R. North.Syn: To disjoint; dislocate; dilacerate; mutilate; divide; sever.
Wiktionary
n. The act or process whereby something is dismembered. vb. (present participle of dismember English)
Usage examples of "dismembering".
One of the condemned men, a forty-sevenyearold former Long Island postal worker named Robert Shulman, was sentenced to death in 1998 for killing and dismembering three prostitutes.
Because a hand-operated, wide-toothed saw had been the only dismembering instrument the external damage was the most extensive of any of the murders they were investigating.
You're surely not suggesting illegal immigrants are going to start sacrificing and dismembering their children to gain the right of residency!
Gordons dismembering Castellano, first left arm, then right arm, then snapping off his neck until only a trunk writhed on the bloody sidewalk.
Actually, it's some sort of a personal attack, one on one, with dismembering or something.
Remo spun back to his feet and, at an angle to compensate for the damage to his arm, took the first step toward catching that sandy blond head and dismembering its supporting neck.
Maybe Garson's killer had been in the process of dismembering the body in order to make sure that his victim would disappear without a trace.
I no longer worried about dismembering bodies, for I knew that when discovered they were removed to the morgue and embalmed within twenty-four hours in most cases.
Unlike tyrannosaurs they had big hands and long, strong arms they used to grab on to the diplo while dismembering him.
But with their sharp stone blades the children's small hands made efficient work of flensing and dismembering the big mammal.