amputationn.
1. gen. A cutting or lopping off, as of branches of trees in pruning; also, the cut end. Obs. exc. as fig. use of 2.
ΚΠ
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Amputation, An amputation, or cutting away: or paring about; a ridding, or taking away.
1691 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense (ed. 8) 64 Cover the Wound or Amputation with a Mixture of Bees-wax.
1727 Pope et al. Peri Bathous 70 in Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. Yon Luminary Amputation needs [i.e. the candle needs snuffing].
1813 C. Marshall Introd. Knowl. & Pract. Gardening (ed. 5) viii. 103 Some amputations are necessary to help the sooner to new roots.
2. esp. The operation of cutting off a limb or other projecting part of the body. Also attrib.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > surgery > removal by surgical means > [noun] > by cutting away > amputation
amputation1617
amputating1639
amp1848
1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate 171 Amputation or Dismembring is the most lamentable part of chirurgery.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica 187 The Amazones in the amputation of their right breast. View more context for this quotation
1743 tr. L. Heister Gen. Syst. Surg. I. ii. 345 Amputations of the Thigh.
1770 C. White in Philos. Trans. 1769 (Royal Soc.) 59 40, I had sawn it off with a common amputation-saw.
1878 A. H. Markham Great Frozen Sea xii. 172 Some of the frost~bites were so severe as to render amputation necessary.
3. fig. Excision, e.g. of words or sentences from a speech or writing; pruning, retrenchment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > decrease or reduction in quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > curtailment
wanec1315
abridginga1382
shortinga1390
abridgement1439
defalcation1476
shorteninga1542
retrenchmentc1600
abridge1611
amputation1664
castration1728
curtail1797
curtailment1799
clipping1839
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > non-fiction > summary or epitome > [noun] > excision
cut1604
amputation1740
excision1858
1664 S. Butler Hudibras ii. i. 27 'Twas he..Made those that represent the Nation Submit, and suffer amputation.
1740 S. Richardson Pamela Pref. p. xiii, In her own Words, without Amputation, or Addition.
1850 H. Rogers Ess. II. iv. 188 The suppression or amputation of sundry compound prepositions and conjunctions.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1884; most recently modified version published online March 2011).
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