Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To separate the head from; decapitate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To tap (a stream) and divert its upper waters through new channels: said of the encroachment of one stream upon another in such a way as to ‘capture’ its head and upper tributaries.
- To cut off the head of; kill or execute by decapitation.
- Figuratively, to deprive of the head, top, or foremost part of: as, to
behead a statue or a word.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To sever the head from; to take off the head of.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To remove the
head .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cut the head of
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Sonnenberg and I got Ed Ney talking about recent threats to "behead" the Canadian PM.
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We made the list and we didn't "behead" anyone!!!!!!
Theodore's World 2010
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He said that since 2004 Spanish prosecutors have created a formal strategy to "behead" the Russian mafia in Spain.
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Start your announcement using the word "behead" (see below for a solution one of our FutureNow guys came up with).
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Swat Taliban paying mercenaries 'blood money' to "behead" policemen ISLAMABAD - The Swat Taliban has engaged a band of private armed terrorists and is paying them handsome amounts to target security officials in Mingora and other adjacent areas.
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2009
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"Think of Aasiya's hurt and pain in years of marriage and the final 30 or 40 seconds trying desperately to fend off his two knives with her hands and possibly being conscious as he began to behead her," Curtin Gable said during a closing statement that had some jurors dabbing tears from their eyes.
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Yeah, I named him Seymour, and then proceeded to behead him (the flowering stem is inedible, and saps the nutrients from the rest of the plant ... it had to be done!) and kidnap some of the "offspring" (read: stalks) to make these muffins!
What Seymour Made! Sarah 2009
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Yeah, I named him Seymour, and then proceeded to behead him (the flowering stem is inedible, and saps the nutrients from the rest of the plant ... it had to be done!) and kidnap some of the "offspring" (read: stalks) to make these muffins!
Archive 2009-05-01 Sarah 2009
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They will only tell us to lynch black men who want to marry white women for their "miscegenation," behead rape victims for their "adultery," stone those who utter a certain string of phonemes for their "blasphemy," burn at the stake men who have sex with other men for their "sodomy".
Archive 2009-08-01 Hal Duncan 2009
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They dang sure wouln't with you after they behead you and drag you dead body through the streets spitting and throwing stones at it.
Rubio: Miranda rights could hamper terror investigations 2010
bilby commented on the word behead
"A man beheaded his partner as she sat on a chair before stuffing her tiny body into a freezer and shooting himself, a Northern Territory inquest has heard."
- Phoebe Stewart, 'Beheaded and stuck in freezer', NT News, 27 August 2008.
August 28, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word behead
I'm not sure whether WeirdNet thinks every cut to the head is a beheading, or whether of should read off.
September 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word behead
I cut my forehead last week. Have I been beheaded?
September 4, 2008
mollusque commented on the word behead
One of you has.
September 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word behead
:-P
September 4, 2008
oroboros commented on the word behead
Top off?
September 23, 2014
ruzuzu commented on the word behead
I'm amused by comparing behead and decapitate. Or is bemused? Demused?
June 23, 2023