disembowel
disembowel Lexical Profile
disembowel Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To remove the bowels or internal organs from a body or carcass.
"The fishmonger showed the apprentice how to scale and disembowel the catch before packing it in ice."
To strip or empty of essential contents, internal structure, or vital force (used figuratively).
"Critics argued that the last-minute amendments would disembowel the environmental protection bill."
Word Nuance & Usage
In British, Australian, and New Zealand English, the inflected forms are typically spelled with a double 'l' ('disembowelled', 'disembowelling'), whereas American English uses a single 'l' ('disemboweled', 'disemboweling').
• Rhymes for disembowel
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in the late 16th century from the privative prefix 'dis-' and the archaic verb 'embowel' (which paradoxically meant both to enclose within the bowels and to remove the bowels), ultimately tracing back to Old French 'boel' and Latin 'botellus' (meaning 'small sausage' or 'intestine').