dissect

Borrowed from Latin dissectus past participle of dissecare (“to cut asunder, cut up”), from dis- (“asunder”) + secare (“to cut”); see section.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛkt/, /daɪˈsɛkt/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛkt/, /daɪˈsɛkt/
• Rhymes: -ɛkt

dissect (third-person singular simple present dissects, present participle dissecting, simple past and past participle dissected)

1. (transitive) To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.
   • 2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 130:

     She was the first person in her class to properly dissect the sheep heart.

2. (transitive) To study a plant or other organism's anatomy similarly.
3. (transitive) To analyze an idea in detail by separating it into its parts.
4. (transitive, anatomy, surgery) To separate muscles, organs, and so on without cutting into them or disrupting their architecture.

   Now dissect the triceps away from its attachment on the humerus.

5. (transitive, pathology) Of an infection or foreign material, following the fascia separating muscles or other organs.

• dissecting microscope

• dissection

• “dissect”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dissect”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “dissect”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• cestids