Crossword clues for dismemberment
dismemberment
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dismemberment \Dis*mem"ber*ment\, n. [Cf. OF. desmembrement, F. d['e]membrement.] The act of dismembering, or the state of being dismembered; cutting in piece; m?tilation; division; separation.
The Castilians would doubtless have resented the
dismemberment of the unwieldy body of which they formed
the head.
--Macaulay.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1751, from dismember + -ment. Earlier formation was dismembration (1590s).\n
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context countable English) The act of dismembering. 2 (context uncountable English) The state or condition of being dismembered. 3 (context countable English) removal from membership; detachment from an organization, group, etc.
WordNet
n. the removal of limbs; being cut to pieces [syn: taking apart]
Wikipedia
Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing the limbs of a living thing. It has been practised upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, can occur as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of the limbs, dismemberment is often fatal to all but the simplest of creatures. In criminology, a distinction is made between offensive and defensive dismemberment. Intentional, criminal dismemberment is known as mayhem.
Dismemberment is a stage illusion, designed and patented by the magician Edward M. Massey in 1935.
Usage examples of "dismemberment".
But it may be added, that should our own citizens, more enterprizing than wise, become desirous of settling this country, and emigrate thither, it must not only be attended with all the injuries of a too widely dispersed population, but, by adding to the great weight of the western part of our territory, must hasten the dismemberment of a large portion of our country, or a dissolution of the government.
I meant to write a history of the troubles of unhappy Poland up to its dismemberment, which was taking place at the epoch in which I was writing.
For one unseemly stretch we also had a run on drug-related dismemberments in Biscayne Bay.
They want lurid anecdotes of shopping-mall shootouts and Dumpster dismemberments to take back home.
It was at that moment that the gunports all along the port side opened and the bronzen muzzles of the culverins emerged to grin of death and dismemberment at the islanders on the boats.
But the chaotic violence had convinced the transnats to resolve their disputes, or at least table them, and all the revolutions had failed, especially after the militaries of the Group of Seven intervened to rescue the transnats from dismemberment in their flags of convenience.
The thought stayed with her, naggingly: Floy could speak of dismemberment and love at the same time, and mean it.
He was not likely to forget the joy on her face as she had directed Brian and Simon just where her heirloom chest--once more glued together since its dismemberment for the Second Crossing--should be placd.
Of course, given the Hemipteran burial customsplacing the bodies of the dead on platforms and exposing them to the airand the fact that Hemiptera has a great number of scavenger beasts, it is logical to assume that Rovar's people had seen bodies in various states of dismemberment, and evolved that particular legend.
She was well aware that she and Hengest both owed the young warrior a deep debt for having showed them the way to remain under Hrothgar's roof despite her rash behavior in the matter of Grendel's dismemberment.
Dismemberment was an entirely different modus operandi, and neither Scotland Yard nor its surgeons were inclined to accept the view that a killer changed his pattern.
His sword was an instrument of dismemberment, and hands and whole arms flew spinning from his strokes to rain down on the faces of attackers still on the scaling ladders.
It savoured scenes of dismemberment, of flaying alive, of the application of noxious substances to the few tender portions of Catteni anatomy.