ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Lancelot,

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King Arthur's clumsiest knight.

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[ uh-oh ]

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They don't tell you about that in the stories.

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Which of these words is closest in meaning to lacerate?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ] All right.

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The root of the word lacerate is

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"lacer," a Latin word meaning to tear up or mangle.

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Let's see which of our answers is closer to that term.

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All right, first up is A - crime,

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which refers to something that's against the law.

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Well, sure, violently attacking someone is considered a crime,

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at least in America, but so is wearing white after Labor Day.

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All right, take a look at C - suture,

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which means the same thing as stitches,

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like what you'd need if you tore up your knee

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after a nasty fall. But that's a solution to the problem,

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not the act itself.

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Well, then there's D - sluggish, which means

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sleepy or slow-moving.

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That one's not even close.

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And we're left with B - cut, which is just

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a less fancy version of the word lacerate.

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So the correct answer is B - cut,

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and just in the nick of time.

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[ uh-oh ]

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