SEVERED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does severed mean? 

• SEVERED (adjective)
  The adjective SEVERED has 1 sense:

1. detached by cutting

  Familiarity information: SEVERED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEVERED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Detached by cutting

Synonyms:

cut off; severed

Context example:

an old tale of Anne Bolyn walking the castle walls with her poor cut-off head under her arm

Similar:

cut (separated into parts or laid open or penetrated with a sharp edge or instrument)

 Context examples 

As his opponent walked towards him he suddenly bounded forward and sent in a whistling cut which would have severed the other in twain had he not sprung lightly back from it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I looked. The lanyards had been almost severed, with just enough left to hold the shrouds till some severe strain should be put upon them.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This situation creates a stable TOP2-DPC complex, which leads to the accumulation of severed DNA that kills cells.

(DNA damage caused by cancer treatment reversed by ZATT protein, National Institutes of Health)

The severed trunk rolled to the very edge of our platform, and for one terrible second we all thought it was over.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thus was I severed from Bessie and Gateshead; thus whirled away to unknown, and, as I then deemed, remote and mysterious regions.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Holmes pointed to the wattles on the severed head.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Until now, it has been hard to tell whether the fins come from protected sharks, as they might look quite similar when severed.

(New way to save endangered sharks – and our seafood, SciDev.Net)

When the antenna points just a few fractions of a degree away from Earth, communications will be severed permanently.

(Cassini Spacecraft Makes Its Final Approach to Saturn, NASA)

On emptying this, Miss Cushing was horrified to find two human ears, apparently quite freshly severed.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)