embowel
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
embowel (third-person singular simple present embowels, present participle emboweling or embowelling, simple past and past participle emboweled or embowelled)
- (obsolete) To enclose or bury.
- 1807, [Miss Guion], chapter II, in The Three Germans. Mysteries Exemplified in the Life of Holstein of Lutztein. A German Romance. […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] F[letcher] Hughes, […], →OCLC, pages 31–32:
- [H]e therefore hastened on, and conducted Carlstadt to the spot he had recently quitted, and discovered to him a rude mishapen entrance to a flight of steps, which appeared as conducting ones to some dwelling emboweled in the earth.
- (archaic) To remove the bowels; disembowel.
- 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CXIII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume VII, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 415:
- […] So had given no direction about his body. I have cauſed it to be embowelled, and depoſited in a vault, till I have orders from England.
- 1867, John Lothrop Motley, Project Gutenberg History of The Netherlands, 1555–1623, Complete[1]:
- Who doubts that the fineing, whipping, torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children, guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith, had assisted the Pope and Philip, and their band of English, Scotch, and Irish conspirators, to shake Elizabeth's throne and endanger her life?
- 1913, Henry W. Nevinson, Essays in Rebellion[2]:
- As to that part of the sentence which relates to embowelling, it was never executed now, but this omission was owing to accident, or to the mercy of the executioner, not to the discretion of the judge. "
Synonyms edit
- (enclose): enclose, bury, embed, inclose
- (remove the bowels): disembowel, eviscerate