Word.ws English Dictionary

limbmeal

limbmeal adverb: into pieces; limb from limb.

Adverb

limbmeal (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Into pieces; limb from limb.
    • O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal!1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • […] they deal with Christ as a Kennel of Hounds do with an Hare, pluck him to pieces, wound and tear him, what in them lies, limb meal, neither his Blood, nor his Wounds, nor his Head, nor his Heart, nor any other part shall escape, and they even dare Vengeance it self […]1677, Edward Bury, England’s Bane, or, The Deadly Danger of Drunkenness, London: Thomas Parkhurst, page 16

Forms of limbmeal

alternative formlimb-meal
alternative formlimb meal

Origin of limbmeal

From Middle English lymmele, limmel, from Old English limmǣlum (“limbmeal, limb by limb”); equivalent to limb + -meal.

Questions about limbmeal

What does limbmeal mean?
Limbmeal means into pieces; limb from limb.
What part of speech is limbmeal?
Limbmeal is an adverb.

Words near limbmeal in the dictionary

  1. limbless
  2. limblessly
  3. limblessness
  4. limbline
  5. limblines
  6. limbmeal
  7. limbo
  8. limbo set
  9. limbo sets
  10. limbo skating
  11. limboed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: limbmeal (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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Cite this entry: “limbmeal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/limbmeal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.