disemˈbowel, v.
[f. dis- 6 + embowel v. (in sense 3); but in sense 1 app. only an intensive of disbowel.]
1. trans. To remove the bowels or entrails of; to eviscerate; also, to rip up so as to cause the bowels to protrude.
| 1613–8 Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626) 124 The Kings Physition disimbowelled his body. 1772–84 Cook Voy. VI. iii. i. (R.) Soon after their death, they are disembowelled, by drawing the intestines and other viscera out. 1872 Baker Nile Tribut. x. 159 The infuriated animal disembowelled him before his son's eyes. 1875 J. Curtis Hist. Eng. 148 While yet alive, he was..disembowelled and quartered. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1603 [see disembowelling below]. 1742 Young Nt. Th. vi. 797 Earth's disembowel'd! measur'd are the Skies! 1870 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. l. 17 They disembowel texts of their plain meanings. |
2. To take out of the bowels. (Cf. embowel v. 3.)
| 1703 J. Philips Splendid Shilling 78 So her disembowell'd web Arachne in a hall or kitchen spreads, Obvious to vagrant flies. |
Hence disemˈbowelled ppl. a., disemˈbowelling vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also disemˈbowelment, the act of disembowelling.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xxv. (1632) 83 High swelling and heaven-disimbowelling words. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 778 Cataracts that sweep From disembowelled Earth the virgin gold. 1746 W. Horsley Fool (1748) I. 77 No. 11 ¶1 The Ripping up and Disembowelling of the dead Bodies. 1826 Scott Woodst. xxix, The disembowelling of the deer. 1875 Contemp. Rev. XXV. 262 The city is for ever undergoing disembowelment. |