as in piercing
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as in bruising
to cut (someone's flesh) deeply or roughly
The broken glass lacerated his feet. The patient's hand was severely lacerated.
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Recent Examples of lacerating
Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2026
The same could be said for Howe’s lacerating self-flagellation afterwards.
—George Caulkin, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2026
According to the Daily Mail, Rebecca Loos, David Beckham’s former personal assistant, had a few things to say about the long-simmering family drama, which exploded into public view Monday after 26-year-old Brooklyn Beckham posted a lacerating take-down of his parents on Instagram.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2026
Yet this stark, lacerating comedy-drama, set in a seaside Long Island that recalls Woody Allen’s Interiors, is admirable in its uncompromising look at the havoc a long-term sibling rivalry can create for everyone within the blast radius.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
Her diaries, two volumes of which have been published, reveal a wonderful writer, lyrical and self-lacerating.
—Anahid Nersessian, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2025
His desperate, lacerating Teddy is a character who has ruined his own life, who has martyred himself out of his devotion to The Truth.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025
Australian playwright Tony McNamara has turned his side hustle as a screenwriter into a blessing for Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Favourite), and viewers of The Great, his bawdy historical farce for Hulu, can attest to his love of layered, lacerating insults.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2025
Irrational violence and lyric visions erupt in lacerating, supremely elegant prose that’s also genuinely funny at times.
—Jon Raymond
august 5, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2025
Adam Bradley Luis Alberto Rodriguez Carlos Nazario, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025
Adjective
Mulligan delivers lacerating fragility, while Isaac turns Josh’s accommodating nature into a pathology, but both characters are littered with backstory details that Beef leaves hanging.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2026
The same could be said for Howe’s lacerating self-flagellation afterwards.
—George Caulkin, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2026
According to the Daily Mail, Rebecca Loos, David Beckham’s former personal assistant, had a few things to say about the long-simmering family drama, which exploded into public view Monday after 26-year-old Brooklyn Beckham posted a lacerating take-down of his parents on Instagram.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 20 Jan. 2026
Yet this stark, lacerating comedy-drama, set in a seaside Long Island that recalls Woody Allen’s Interiors, is admirable in its uncompromising look at the havoc a long-term sibling rivalry can create for everyone within the blast radius.
—Scott Tobias, Vulture, 5 Dec. 2025
Her diaries, two volumes of which have been published, reveal a wonderful writer, lyrical and self-lacerating.
—Anahid Nersessian, New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2025
His desperate, lacerating Teddy is a character who has ruined his own life, who has martyred himself out of his devotion to The Truth.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 28 Aug. 2025
Australian playwright Tony McNamara has turned his side hustle as a screenwriter into a blessing for Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Favourite), and viewers of The Great, his bawdy historical farce for Hulu, can attest to his love of layered, lacerating insults.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2025
Irrational violence and lyric visions erupt in lacerating, supremely elegant prose that’s also genuinely funny at times.
—Jon Raymond
august 5, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2025
Verb
The songs are at times over-the-top, at others lacerating in their introspection about everything from the anxiety of aging to the anguished choice to terminate a pregnancy.
—Adam Bradley Luis Alberto Rodriguez Carlos Nazario, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lacerating
Adjective
-
The ping of pickleball play produces a uniquely piercing and repetitive sound that has led to contentious lawsuits and controversies across the entire country, including just north in Fox Point, as the sport has rapidly grown in popularity over the last few years.—
Claudia Levens,
jsonline.com,
3 Mar. 2026
-
Mars merging with Pluto can hit you with a piercing moment of honesty.—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
But the storms that lash the unpeopled coasts and jagged mountains of our Fiftieth State are no respecters of men, even the best of us.—
Ben East,
Outdoor Life,
14 May 2026
-
From the beginning, the Palisades, with its Mediterranean climate and jagged coastline, lured the most adventurous of settlers, each generation reshaping it in its own image.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 May 2026
Verb
-
Ukraine launched one of its largest drone barrages of the war, killing at least three people near Moscow and another in Belgorod and wounding a dozen more, officials said.—
Samya Kullab,
Los Angeles Times,
17 May 2026
-
The incident took place last June when officers fired at a vehicle, wounding suspect Eric Chase in the knee.—
Joan Murray,
CBS News,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Lacerating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lacerating. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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