amputate

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. verb remove surgically

Etymology

From Latin amputō (“prune, cut away”). The original sense of pruning (a tree, etc.) became obsolete. The OED considers uses related to anything other than an animal limb to be figurative uses of the modern sense.

In classic literature

Synonyms

cut off

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