anatomize
/əˈnatəmʌɪz
/(also anatomise)
verb [with object]
1Dissect (a body): he was sentenced to be hanged and then anatomized...
- They were not like Da Vinci, who would anatomize corpses to learn about the conformation of the human body.
- He also uses anatomising skill to get under the skin of these shifty doctors.
- Torn, we are told, was so obsessed by anatomical study that he stashed anatomized body parts under his bed, an unhealthy practice that contributed to his early death.
1.1Examine and analyse in detail: successful comedy is notoriously difficult to anatomize...
- There was no leader whose speech could be dissected, no party whose splits could be anatomised, no single manifesto whose implications could be discussed.
- A New Shirt, a novel, and the story collections The Mourning Thief, Lebanon Lodge, and A Link with the River show Hogan anatomizing his own fictional world of the western midlands.
- In anatomizing character, the Victorians' leading fear ‘was not moral relativism but weakness of will.’
Origin
Late Middle English: from medieval Latin anatomizare, from anatomia (see anatomy).