as in heading
to cut off the head of
a particularly gruesome series of murders in which the victims were decapitated
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Recent Examples of decapitating
The problem is that the effort has succeeded only in decapitating the Maduro government and instilling fear among Venezuelans of future instability.
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Washington Post, 5 Jan. 2026
His lover died in shock and horror that Regis was capable of such violence, and a vampire hunter did the rest of the work by staking, decapitating, and burying him next to Bethané’s corpse.
—Scott Meslow, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
Israel, already emerging from a year of history-bending military operations—crippling Hamas in Gaza, decapitating Hezbollah's command structure, and setting back Iran's nuclear program—now stands at the threshold of something larger.
—Eric Cortellessa, Time, 11 Oct. 2025
Winnecke is accused of killing and decapitating his father.
—Killian Baarlaer, The Courier-Journal, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decapitating
Verb
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Borregales banged home a 35-yard field to give the home team a 6-3 lead heading into halftime.—
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Adding to the sense of tumult ahead is the fact that traditional centers of political influence − congressional leaders, the Democratic National Committee, the Republican National Committee − don't have much to say about where the nation's politics are heading.—
Verb
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On subsequent songs, Ninajirachi sings about the destruction of her innocence through sexting, and the trauma of coming across a beheading video.—
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At the same time, the barrage of vitriol unleashed by China castigating Takaichi as a warmongering militarist includes a reprehensible threat by the Chinese consul-general in Osaka about beheading Takaichi.—
Cite this Entry
“Decapitating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decapitating. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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