Dictionary

decapitate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /də-/ (US)
• (US) audio
• /dɪˈkap.ɪt.eɪt/ (UK)
• /diˈkæp.ə.teɪt/ (US)
• /diˈkæp.ɪ.teɪt/ (US)
• /dɪ-/ (US)

Etymology

From French décapiter, from Late Latin dēcapitāre, literally, “to de-head”.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:literal, transitive) To remove the head of.
   • The hippie wasn't wearing any shoes. January in Boston and he's in sandals, standing there screaming, “Look what she did! Look what the crazy fucking bitch did!” --like it was my pleasure to risk decapitating myself by slamming through the hippiemobile. 1993, William S. Burroughs, Esquire, volume 120, page 78:
   • Employee #1 was in the center of the runway, working alone approximately 300 feet from the end that led to the plane loading area and hangars. A pilot flying an airplane, Schweizer Aircraft Corporation Model G-164 B, approached the airstrip from the opposite end and landed. As the pilot taxied the plane toward the hangar, the plane's propeller struck Employee #1 in the head and decapitated him. 2013, “Accident: 202674701 - Worker Paving Airstrip Is Struck By Airplane And Decapitated”, in Occupational Safety and Health Administration, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2022:
   • One machine in which Mr. Taylor takes special pride is a salmon canner, which engulfs a whole salmon, decapitates and decaudates it, skins it, blows out its viscera, cuts it into pieces, deposits them in the can, sterilizes them […] 1937, Technology Review, volume 40, page 100:
2. (figuratively, transitive) To oust or destroy the leadership or ruling body of (a government etc.).
   • The assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was the culmination of decades of painstaking intelligence gathering by Israeli secret services, […] which culminated in a single concentrated burst of lethal violence to decapitate the Iranian regime, according to experts, veteran spies and officials in Israel and the US. 2026 March 1, Jason Burke, “How Israeli sleight and US might led to the assassination of Ali Khamenei”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • The Russian goal at the start of the invasion had been to kill or capture Zelensky and decapitate his government. 2022 December 7, Simon Shuster, “2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky”, in Time, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2023:

Forms

Antonyms

recapitate

Deriveds

decapitee · decapitable · decapitation · decapitatee · decapicone · decapitator

Hyponyms

guillotine

Synonyms

behead · decollate