anatomize

verb

1. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive)To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.

   “VVho but a Foppe vvil labour to anatomize a Flye?”

   “Then let them anotomize Regan, ſee vvhat breeds about her / Hart[,] is there any cauſe in nature that makes this hardnes, […]”

   “[A]bout him lay the carkaſſes of many ſeuerall beaſts, nevvly by him cut vp and Anatomiſed, […]”

   “VVell my dear I'll provide for thy going off hovvever: let me ſee! you'll only have occaſion for a Noſegay, a pair of VVhite Gloves, and a Coffin: look you, take you no care about the Surgeons, you ſhall not be Anatomiz'd— […]”

   “He did not care the least about Fanny now: he wondered how he ever should have cared: and according to his custom made an autopsy of that dead passion, and anatomised his own defunct sensation for his poor little nurse.”

2. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive)To cut up or dissect (the body of a human being or an animal), specifically for the purpose of investigating its anatomy.

   “[…] Surgeon's Hall, where malefactors were anatomised after execution—a Sanguinary but Salutary custom—was in the Old Bailey, over against the leads of the Sessions House […]”

3. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, transitive)To cut up or dissect (a plant or one of its parts) to investigate its structure.
4. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, figuratively, transitive)To scrutinize (something) down to the most minute detail.

   “Near-synonyms: atomize, analyze”

   “I ſpeake but brotherly of him, but ſhould I anathomize him to thee, as hee is, I muſt bluſh, and vveepe, and thou muſt look pale and vvonder.”

   “I vvould gladly haue him ſee his company anathomiz'd, that hee might take a meaſure of his ovvne iudgements, vvherein ſo curiouſly he had ſet this counterfeit.”

   “[O]ne ſhould reade all the Topographers that ever vvrit of, or anatomiz'd a Tovvn or Countrey, and mingle Diſcourſe vvith the moſt exact obſervers of the Government thereof, and labour to dravv out of them all they poſſibly knovv or can remember; […]”

   “In the precedent Subſections, I haue anatomiſed thoſe inferiour Faculties of the Soule; the Rationall remaineth, a pleaſant, but a doubtfull Subiect, as one termes it, and vvith the like brevity to be diſcuſſed.”

5. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To chemically analyse (a substance).

   “Laſtly, it can not be othervviſe but that the fire, in all this vvhile of continuall application to the body it thus anatomiſeth, hath hardned and as it vvere roſted ſome partes into ſuch greatneſſe and dryneſſe as they vvill not fly, not can be carried vp vvith any moderate heate.”

   “Tell me, philosopher, thou who arrogatest to thyself the proud name, and who callest the cloud a vapour, and anatomizest the free and ambient air into thy wretched hydrogen and nitrogen,—tell me, dost thou know what it is to shed the tear of rapture, or indulge the sweet pain of romance?”

6. (British, English, Oxford, US, archaic, intransitive)To cut up or dissect the body of a human being or an animal.

   “The most learned philosopher […] might dissect, anatomise, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him.”

   “Impiety? Not if I know myself! / Not if you know the heart and soul, I bare, / I bid you cut, hack, slash, anatomize, / Till peccant part be found and flung away!”

   “He [John Keats] was a youth of energy and purpose, and though he no doubt penned many a stanza when he should have been anatomizing, and walked the hospitals accompanied by the early gods, nevertheless passed a very creditable examination in 1817.”