abscission

/æbˈsɪʒən/

Abscission means the cutting off or removal of something, like an unsightly mole on the chin.

You can remember that abscission is all about cutting when you see how close it looks to the word scissors. If you are a public speaker who habitually cuts yourself off, your speeches may suffer from abscission. If you’re wounded in the leg in battle and gangrene sets in, you will be faced with the abscission of a limb. Layoffs at work are the abscission of workers.

Definitions of abscission

1. noun

   the act of cutting something off
   synonyms: cutting off

   types:

   circumcision

   the act of circumcising; surgical removal of the foreskin of males

   type of:

   remotion, removal

   the act of removing
2. noun

   shedding of flowers and leaves and fruit following formation of scar tissue in a plant
   type of:

   shedding, sloughing

   the process whereby something is shed