verb
behead
bih-HED/bɪˈhed/
To cut off someone's head.
The statue is beheaded, with its stone head lying beside it.
Etymology
Here be- has a removing or depriving force: combined with “head,” it means to remove a person’s head by cutting it off.
In context
it's pretty forbidding to have to crawl down here with your head stuck out, knowing there are people waiting to behead you or club you at the other end.
More examples
- The play describes a threat to behead the rival king.
- The chronicle records that several captives were beheaded.
- The court debates whether beheading should remain a legal punishment.
Forms
behead · beheads · beheaded · beheading
Similar words
- decapitate
- The more clinical or formal equivalent.
- execute
- Any official killing as punishment, not a specific method.