Word.ws English Dictionary

dilaniate

/dɪˈleɪnieɪt/

dilaniate verb: to rend in pieces; to tear.

Verb

dilaniate (third-person singular simple present dilaniates, present participle dilaniating, simple past and past participle dilaniated)

  1. (obsolete) To rend in pieces; to tear.
    • For although ſix abſolute Princes were interreſſed in the quarrel, and that they had all juſt pretences, and were heated and heightned in their deſignes, yet rather than they would dilaniat the entrailes of their owne mother (faire Italy) and expoſe her thereby to be raviſh'd by Tramontanes, they...1644, James Howell, England’s Teares, for the Present Wars, […], London: […] Richard Heron, →OCLC, page 12

Forms of dilaniate

third-person singular presentdilaniates
present participledilaniating
past participledilaniated
pastdilaniated

Origin of dilaniate

First attested in 1535; Borrowed from Latin dīlāniātus, perfect passive participle of dīlāniō (“to dilacerate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dis- + lāniō (“to tear to pieces”).

Questions about dilaniate

What does dilaniate mean?
Dilaniate means to rend in pieces; to tear.
What part of speech is dilaniate?
Dilaniate is a verb.
How do you pronounce dilaniate?
Dilaniate is pronounced /dɪˈleɪnieɪt/.
What is the past tense of dilaniate?
The past tense of dilaniate is dilaniated.

Words near dilaniate in the dictionary

  1. dilambdodonts
  2. dilamination
  3. Dilan
  4. Dilanian
  5. Dilanians
  6. dilaniate
  7. dilaniated
  8. dilaniates
  9. dilaniation
  10. dilanthanum
  11. dilapidate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dilaniate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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