Definition

1. Verb:
   • To remove the entrails or internal organs of: "embowel" means to take out the bowels or viscera, typically of a dead animal or person, often in a ritualistic or surgical context.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • The hunter learned how to embowel a deer after the kill to preserve the meat. (To remove the internal organs of the animal.)
  • In ancient times, priests would embowel sacrificial animals as part of religious ceremonies. (To remove the entrails for ritual purposes.)

Advanced Usage

• "to embowel oneself": a reflexive usage meaning to remove one's own internal organs, usually in a historical or literary context of suicide.
  • The defeated samurai chose to embowel himself in the tradition of seppuku. (He performed a ritualized self-disembowelment.)

Variants and Related Words

• Disembowel (verb): a more common variant meaning to remove the intestines or internal organs.
  • The medieval executioner would disembowel traitors as a form of punishment. (Remove the entrails.)

Synonyms

• Disembowel: to remove the bowels or internal organs.
• Eviscerate: to remove the internal organs, especially the intestines.
• Gut: to remove the internal organs from a fish or animal.

Related Idioms

• To spill one's guts: a figurative idiom meaning to confess or reveal everything, sometimes linked metaphorically to the act of disembowelment.
  • He finally spilled his guts to the police about the crime. (He confessed everything.)

Phrasal Verbs

• Embowel out: an informal, rare phrasal verb meaning to completely remove the internal contents.
  • The taxidermist meticulously emboweled out the bird to prepare its skin. (Removed all internal organs.)