lacerate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   irregularly slashed and jagged as if torn

   Lacerate leaves.

2. 2
   verb

   To tear, rip or wound.

   Machinery, surgical precision / Lacerate the limbs of the poorest of the children / Watch them scatter through the fields of departed.

3. 3
   adj

   Jagged, as if torn or lacerated.

   The bract at the base is dry and papery, often lacerate near its apex.

The verb is first attested in 1425, the adjective in 1514; inherited from Middle English laceraten, borrowed from Latin lacerātus, perfect passive participle of lacerō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

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