Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To remove the entrails of; disembowel.
  • intransitive verb To take away a vital or essential part of; weaken, damage, or destroy.
  • intransitive verb To remove the contents of (an organ).
  • intransitive verb To remove an organ, such as an eye, from (a patient).
  • intransitive verb To protrude through a wound or surgical incision.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To remove the viscera from; take out the entrails of; disembowel.
  • Figuratively, to deprive of essential or vital parts.
  • To unbosom; reveal; disclose.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To take out the entrails of; to disembowel; to gut.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To disembowel, to remove the viscera.
  • verb transitive To destroy or make ineffectual or meaningless.
  • verb transitive To elicit the essence of.
  • verb transitive, surgery To remove a bodily organ or its contents.
  • verb intransitive, of viscera To protrude through a surgical incision.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having been disembowelled
  • verb surgically remove a part of a structure or an organ
  • verb remove the contents of
  • verb take away a vital or essential part of
  • verb remove the entrails of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ēviscerāre, ēviscerāt- : ē-, ex-, ex- + viscera, internal organs; see viscera.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin evisceratus, past participle of eviscerare ("to disembowel"), from e ("out") + viscera ("bowels").

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Examples

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  • "Every phase of the situation was successively eviscerated ..."

    Joyce, Ulysses, 14

    January 20, 2007