behead

UK/bɪˈhɛd/US/bɪˈhɛd/

verbB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,992 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: beheaded, beheading, beheads

To behead is to cut off somebody's head. Beheaded in the Tower, sentenced to be beheaded, behead the statue.

It was the nobleman's execution in England, being quicker and considered less shameful than hanging. The word is also used of statues and flowers, where beheading is vandalism or deadheading depending on intent.

Definitions of behead

1verbbeheadTo cut off somebody's head.B2+
“The king ordered that the traitors be beheaded at dawn.”

behead is a killing.

Where it comes from

Old English beheafdian is be- plus heafod, a head.

Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Proto-West Germanic
*bihaubudōn
Old English
behēafdian — to behead
Middle English
beheden
English, today
behead

Built from

*bihaubidōn · Proto-West Germanic — to behead

From Middle English beheden, bihefden, biheveden, from Old English behēafdian (“to behead”), from Proto-West Germanic bihaubudōn, bihaubidōn (“to behead”), equivalent to be + head. Cognate with Middle High German behoubeten (“to behead”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

behead in the wild

The national laws of Saudi Arabia and Yemen permit beheading.
Decapitation
MacLeod is involved in the Game, an ongoing battle during which all Immortals have to behead each other until only one is left.
Highlander: The Series season 2
The 2007 Basilan beheading incident was an armed incident that took place in July 2007 between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and the Philippine Army.
2007 Basilan beheading incident
The woman speaks to the people of the city, and they behead Sheba, throwing his head over the wall, at which Joab departs.
Wise woman of Abel

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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