eviscerate
/i'visəreit/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To remove the internal organs from a body or carcass: This is the primary and literal meaning, referring to the surgical or butchery process of disemboweling.
- To deprive something of its essential content or force: This figurative meaning describes the act of weakening or gutting something by removing its most vital parts, such as the core arguments of a proposal or the essential elements of a law.
- To remove an organ or the contents of a bodily cavity surgically: A specific medical usage.
Examples of Usage
- Verb (Literal):
- The hunter eviscerated the deer after the kill.
- The recipe instructs you to eviscerate the fish before cooking.
- Verb (Figurative):
- The last-minute amendments completely eviscerated the original treaty, leaving it meaningless.
- Critics argued that the new policy would eviscerate funding for public schools.
Advanced Usage
- Adjectival Use (Eviscerated): The past participle can function as an adjective meaning "having been disemboweled" or "having been gutted of essential content."
- The eviscerated animal was prepared for taxidermy.
- They were left with an eviscerated version of the reform bill.
Variants and Related Words
- Evisceration (n): The act or process of eviscerating.
- The evisceration of the policy left it ineffective.
- Disembowel (v): A close synonym for the literal meaning.
Synonyms
- Gut (v): To remove the entrails from; also used figuratively to mean to destroy the essential power of something.
- Emasculate (v): To deprive of strength or vigor (figurative sense).
- Weaken (v), Impoverish (v): For the figurative sense of making something less effective.
Related Phrases
- To eviscerate an argument: To thoroughly dismantle or destroy the core points of an argument.
- The debater skillfully eviscerated his opponent's argument.
Adjective
- having been disembowelled
Verb
- take away a vital or essential part of
- the compromise among the parties eviscerated the bill that had been proposed
- remove the entrails of
- draw a chicken
- remove the contents of
- eviscerate the stomach
- surgically remove a part of a structure or an organ