lacerate

While large shards of plastic can lacerate organ walls, the smaller particles, known as microplastics, can be just as deleterious.

From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2023

New verbs entered the surf lexicon: shred, tear, lacerate.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 26, 2019

When Brady doesn’t face quick pressure, he is typically able to lacerate opposing defenses with short passes.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 30, 2019

Despite the carping of her critics, Clinton does in fact lacerate herself for losing.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2017

Oh, Cornelia," whispered Henri, his voice trembling with emotion; "unhappy child, why do you lacerate your own heart and mine so cruelly?

From A Twofold Life by Wilhelmine von Hillern

Baumbach’s signature serio-comic touch, in which the humor lacerates as much as the drama, should be in full effect here.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025

The district court lacerates the argument simply by restating it:

From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2023

This summer lacerates us as we gradually accept that warnings won’t work.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2021

As it is, spare a thought for likely runner-up, Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea, who lacerates your heart in a fraction of Davis’ screen time.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 23, 2017

Worry deliberately pains, wounds, hurts, pinches, tweaks, grates upon, galls, chafes, gnaws, pricks, lancinates, lacerates, pierces, cuts, gravels, corrodes, mortifies, shocks, horrifies, twinges and gripes its victims.

From Quit Your Worrying! by George Wharton James

"I'm convinced that if my nerve was lacerated tomorrow I would have our implant put in," he said.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2026

“We have been lacerated by the tentacles of corruption and by criminal networks that have profoundly marked the life of our country,” Zelaya wrote on X on Monday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025

He left the room, returning with a metronome whose loud, mechanical clicking lacerated the otherwise-fine mood being created by a Bach record on the turntable.

From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2025

After sitting out three games with a lacerated liver, he returned to play in a school-record 149 plays from scrimmage this month against Stanford.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2023

My hands are lacerated, I sound like I’m breathing through a gas mask, and I’m looking through a slit formed by the puffed lids of my right eye.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

Trade bible Variety called it a "lacerating portrait," while Deadline said the "damning" film had "thrashed" Musk as "petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel."

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

The writing in that book is sardonic and lacerating, but it doesn’t dazzle for its own sake.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026

“You are as privileged as they come and you used that privilege to obtain power, a following and fame,” Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters in a lacerating lecture.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2025

Instead, with deep feeling and lacerating and gentle words, Leigh creates a world that, like the vast, mysterious one hovering outside its frame, can seem agonizingly empty if you can’t see the people in it.

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2024

And he still has a pretty lacerating smile, so the nickname has some staying power even if he doesn’t.

From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx