Definition of "lacerate" []

• To rip, cut, or tear. (verb-transitive)
• To cause deep emotional pain to; distress. (verb-transitive)
• Torn; mangled. (adjective)
• Wounded. (adjective)
• Having jagged, deeply cut edges: lacerate leaves. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They try to perforate the uterus, to get the foetus out, but often lacerate the cervix along the way, so many bleed heavily or leave tissue in the womb which becomes infected."
• "In the final minutes of her first Supreme Court term, Justice Elena Kagan delivered a full-blast dissent, using pointed, colloquial, sometimes sarcastic language rarely seen from the court's liberal minority to lacerate the conservative majority in a campaign-finance case."
• "The star of I Love You Phillip Morris, The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind teams up with the primed-for-prime-time players to lacerate today's headline-splashing people and events."