amputate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to remove all or part of a limb or other body part by surgery

   The surgeons had to amputate the badly damaged leg.

2. 2
   verb

   figurative: to cut off or remove a substantial part of something

   The abridged edition did not merely shorten the final chapter; it seemed to amputate it.

From Latin amputare ("to cut around; prune; cut off"), formed from ambi- ("around") and putare ("to prune, trim, reckon"). The older English sense referred to pruning plants; the modern medical sense specializes the broader idea of cutting away a part.

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