dismember, v.
(dɪsˈmɛmbə(r))
Forms: 4–6 dis-, dysmembre, 5 desmembre, 5– dismember; also 3–6 demembre: see demember.
[a. OF. desmembre-r (11th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), mod.F. démembrer = Pr., Sp., and It. desmembrar, It. di)smembrare, med.L. dismembrāre and dēmembrāre, f. dis- 4, de- 6 + membrum limb.]
1. trans. To deprive of limbs or members; to cut off the limbs or members of; to tear or divide limb from limb. (In quot. 1697, to castrate.)
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 559 Most reuþe it was ido, Þat sir Simon þe olde man demembred was so. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 1159 Þat we ne scholde to deþe gon, be hangid & to-drawe, Ouþer be demembrid euerechoun. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3488 Dyssmembrit as marters, & murtheret to dethe. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 46 Ye woulde with your owne handes dismembre hym & plucke him in pieces. a 1618 Raleigh Mahomet 42 Seeing Ataulpho entering..dismembred of nose and ears. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece ii. iii. (1715) 204 Some were so rigid Observers of the rules of chastity that..they dismember'd themselves. 1725 Pope Odyss. iii. 322 Fowls obscene dismember'd his remains. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 286 To be torn with redhot pincers, smeared with melted lead, and dismembered by four horses. |
b. transf.
| 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. III. 624 A never yet repaired dismembring of this Tree. 1726 G. Shelvocke Voy. round World (1757) 257 Palm-cabbage is..the head of this tree, which being cut off, and dismembered of its great spreading leaves, [etc.]. 1830 J. G. Strutt Sylva Brit. 93 Its branches are so tough as to withstand the fury of gales that would dismember most other trees. 1839 Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxxi. 424 Their eruption dismembered the strata. |
† c. To carve: said in reference to herons and some other birds. Obs.
| 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 265 Termes of a Kerver..Dysmembre that heron. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) p. xliv, The Kerver..his Knife in his hande Dismembring a crane, or somewhat deynteous. 1804 Farley Lond. Art Cookery (ed. 10) 293 To dismember a Hern. Cut off the legs, lace the breast down the sides. 1885 Illustr. Lond. News 10 Oct. 362/3. |
2. fig. To divide into parts or sections, so as to destroy integrity; to cut up, cut to pieces, mangle, mutilate: in recent use chiefly, To divide and partition (a country or empire).
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 665 To swere grete oþys..As we folys do..Dysmembre Iesu alle þat we may. c 1330 ― Chron. (1810) 313 Þe coroune forto saue Dismembred not a dele. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. cxlvii. 133 So dyd this Charlis dismembre and cut or breke the enemyes of Fraunce throughe his hyghe prowesse. 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 246 Such doctrines as do either poison the church with heresy, or dismember and rent it asunder with schism. 1624 N. De Lawne tr. Du Moulin's Logick 123 He..must dismember the said question into two parts. 1734 tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) I. 168 His dominions were dismembered. 1840 Carlyle Heroes iii. (1872) 106 Italy..poor Italy lies dismembered, scattered asunder, not appearing in any protocol or treaty as a unity at all. 1874 Green Short Hist. ii. §2. 65 Mercia had been dismembered to provide another earldom for his son. |
† 3. To cut off, sever from the body (a limb or member). (In quot. 1616, To mangle or mutilate.)
| 1580 [see dismembered ppl. a. 2]. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 423 When any part of the body is cut off or dismembred. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 126 The slitting of a horses nosthrils..by dismembring the organ or instrument whereby he draweth vp the aire, doth breed in him a greater difficultie of breathing. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics xx. 319 A hand, or foot dismembred from the body. 1694 tr. Milton's Lett. State Feb. an. 1655 Wks. (1851) 339 The wresting of the Kingdom of Poland from Papal Subjection, as it were a Horn dismembred from the Head of the Beast. |
† b. fig. and transf. To cut off, separate, sever, from the main body: chiefly in reference to a country or region. ? Obs.
| 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 922 To dismember the other Towns of Boeotia from the city of Thebes. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xiii. 271 Britain was thus dismembered from the empire. 1802 R. Brookes Gazetteer (ed. 12) s.v. Polotsk, Part of a palatinate of Lithuania, dismembered from Poland by the treaty of partition in 1772. c 1815 Jane Austen Persuasion ii. ii, Having dismembered himself from the paternal tree. |
4. [f. dis- 7 b + member.] To cut off from membership.
| 1649 Prynne Vind. Liberty Eng. 10 The House of Commons.. having no more Authority to dis-member their fellow-members, then any Judges..have to dis-judge..their fellow Judges. 1683 T. Hunt Def. Charter Lond. 42 Leave to go out of that Society, and dismember themselves. a 1734 North Lives I. 175 The parliament met, and..the new members were attacked..and were soon dismembered by vote of the house. 1884 S. S. Seal in Solicitors' Jrnl. 8 Nov. 30/2 Becoming a defaulter..would have involved his being dismembered from the Exchange. |
Hence disˈmembering ppl. a.
| 1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall Rome i. 59 Long before the dismembering deed of Constantine. |