dissect
verbUK /dɪˈsɛkt/ · US /dɪˈsɛkt/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin dissectus past participle of dissecare (“to cut asunder, cut up”), from dis- (“asunder”) + secare (“to cut”); see section.
1
To study an animal's anatomy by cutting it apart; to perform a necropsy or an autopsy.
- She was the first person in her class to properly dissect the sheep heart.2020, Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half, Dialogue Books, page 130:
2
To study a plant's or other organism's anatomy similarly.
3
Figuratively To analyze an idea in detail by delineating between its parts.
4
Derogatory, Figuratively To decontextualize an idea, especially through overanalysis by delineating between its parts too strongly based on style, usually involving pedantry, at the expense of substance.
- Academics tend to take Indigenous oral histories out of their contexts and dissect them according to Western disciplinary objectives and foci (see figure 1).2000, Winona Lu-Ann Stevenson, Decolonizing Tribal Histories, University of California, Berkeley:
- By focusing excessively on dissecting the text into 'forms' and exploring their supposed evolution, form criticism overlooks the larger literary and historical context within which these forms exist.2023 July 16, Edward D. Andrews, BIBLICAL EXEGESIS: Biblical Criticism on Trial, Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp, page 242:
1 more example
- There should be a more holistic approach both to behavior and to inner experience. Köhler (1929), in the first edition of his Gestalt psychology book, made a similar parallel. Both classical psychology and behaviorism decontextualize, and in this way, both have an unnatural tendency to dissect human mental life into meaningless atoms.2023, Csaba Pléh, Laying the Foundations of Independent Psychology: The Formation of Modern Psychology, Taylor & Francis, page 369:
5
Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences, Surgery To separate muscles, organs, etc. without cutting into them or disrupting their architecture.
- Now dissect the triceps away from its attachment on the humerus.
- Derived terms
- cryodissect, dissectability, dissectable, dissecter, dissecting microscope, dissective, dissector, equidissectable, hydrodissect, immunodissect, macrodissected, microdissect, microdissected, nondissected, predissected, redissect, stereodissecting, subdissect, undissected
- Related terms
- dissection