Tears apart or cuts away the limbs and body of something, or breaks a group or organization into separate pieces.
Third-person singular form of dismember; from the Old French and Latin roots dismembrare (dis- + membrum), with the -s suffix indicating present tense singular action.
Interestingly, this verb rarely appears in modern medical contexts—surgeons say 'amputate' instead—but it dominates in historical and political writing, showing how a word's usage shifts completely across professional fields over time.
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