behead
Sever the neck
To behead is to cut off someone's head, typically as a method of execution.
Beheading was historically considered an honorable death reserved for nobility—commoners were hanged.
The word appears in news coverage of executions by authoritarian regimes and terrorist groups: The hostage was beheaded on video.
Remove someone's head
- guillotineVertical beheading apparatus
- executionerOne who kills condemned
- scaffoldTemporary elevated work structure
- blockSolid mass, or impede
axe · sword · condemned · capital punishment · Anne Boleyn · Marie Antoinette · headsman · chopping block
Vertical beheading apparatus
- French RevolutionLate-1700s republican upheaval
- Tower of LondonMedieval riverside fortress
- medievalOf the Middle Ages
- reign of terrorPeriod of violent oppression
monarchy · aristocracy · nobility · Robespierre · Henry VIII · scaffold · courtyard · dungeon
Levantine jihadist organization
- hostageCaptive held as security
- videoRecorded moving imagery
- kidnappingUnlawful seizure of person
- extremistOne holding fringe views
journalist · captive · propaganda · militant · terrorist · ransom · victim · atrocity
decapitate
Remove someone's head
- guillotineVertical beheading apparatus
- executionerOne who kills condemned
- scaffoldTemporary elevated work structure
block · axe · sword · condemned · capital punishment · Anne Boleyn · Marie Antoinette · headsman · chopping block · traitor
guillotine
Vertical beheading apparatus
- French RevolutionLate-1700s republican upheaval
- Tower of LondonMedieval riverside fortress
- medievalOf the Middle Ages
reign of terror · monarchy · aristocracy · nobility · Robespierre · Henry VIII · scaffold · courtyard · dungeon · Jacobin
ISIS
Levantine jihadist organization
- hostageCaptive held as security
- videoRecorded moving imagery
- kidnappingUnlawful seizure of person
extremist · journalist · captive · propaganda · militant · terrorist · ransom · victim · atrocity · war crime
remove
Take something away
organization · hierarchy · dismantle · leaderless · overthrow · decimate · disrupt · cripple · weaken · destroy
prune
Desiccated stone fruit
top · plant · flower · stem · rose · garden · shears · bloom · snip · remove
- cuttingslicing, slice, chopping, dice, dicing
- royal actionscoronation, decree, abdication, reign, knighting