lacerate en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈlæ.sɚ.ət/
Etymology
The verb is first attested in 1425, the adjective in 1514; inherited from Middle English laceraten, borrowed from Latin lacerātus, perfect passive participle of lacerō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Meanings
-
(not-comparable, obsolete) Mangled, torn, lacerated.
But who can gaze Upon that other form, which on the rood In agony is stretched?... his hands transfixed, And lacerate with the body's pendent weight;
1805, Robert Southey, “Canto II. VIII.”, in Madoc, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and A[rchibald] Constable and Co, […], by James Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, part I (Madoc in Wales), page 255:But as they detrected the doing of theyr duetie, so god euer graunted vnto this realme force to compell them thervnto within memory, not withstandyng any theyr interruption by resistence, which vnto the tyme of our progenitour Henry the VI. neuer indured so longe as it made intermission within tyme of mynde, wherby the possession myght seme to be enpaired: from the tyme of Henry the VI vnto the seuenth yere of our reigne, how our realme hathe ben for a season lacerate and torne by diuersitie of titles, tyl our time and syns by warre outwardly vexed and troubled, The story is so lamentable for some parte therof, as were tedious to reherse.
1542, Henry VIII, The Declaration of the just causes of the warre with the Scotts (as printed in the Grenville copy 5945 in the British Museum Library):
-
(not-comparable) Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.
The bract at the base is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex.