Amputates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To surgically cut off a limb or body part, to detach a segment from an object or structure, and to remove a component in a metaphorical sense
2. To perform a surgical removal of a limb or body part ; to detach a portion from a physical object or structure ; to discard a part metaphorically in speech or writing
3. To cut off and take away a body limb by surgery ; to sever a section from a structure or item ; to figuratively remove an element from a larger whole

Etymology: The verb "amputates" is simply the third-person singular present of "amputate," so the word's story is the story of its root. That root is Latin "amputare," built from "am-" (a variant of "ambi-," meaning "around") and "putare," "to prune or cut." The original sense was agricultural: cutting back the branches of a tree, a meaning that has since dropped out of use entirely. Over time the verb narrowed onto the human body. Surgeons cutting off a limb became its dominant use, and that remains the most familiar sense. The verb then loosened again, so that people now speak of amputating a paragraph from an essay or a department from a company. Dictionary writers treat these uses as figurative extensions of the surgical meaning rather than separate senses.

Synonyms: cuts off, removes, resects, severs, detaches

Antonyms: attaches, joins, connects, unites, integrates