anatomize

• IPA^(key): /əˈnætəmaɪz/

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anatomize (third-person singular simple present anatomizes, present participle anatomizing, simple past and past participle anatomized)

1. (transitive) To inspect or investigate by dissection.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 54, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He did not care the least about Fanny now: he wondered how he ever should have cared: and according to his custom made an autopsy of that dead passion, and anatomised his own defunct sensation for his poor little nurse.

2. (transitive) To scrutinize down to the most minute detail.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], lines 130-32:

     I speak but brotherly
     of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush
     and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder.

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