💡 Main part 🌱 Soft plant center 🐸 To destroy spinal cord 🔪 To remove center

to pith

1 9.9

To destroy an animal's spinal cord so it cannot move

verb
/pɪθ/

Offensive

: destruir la médula espinal

And then, and this is very important, once you get that head off, you gotta pith it as fast as you can.

Examples

Before conducting the experiment, they decided to pith the animal to ensure accurate results.
To study its anatomy, the researcher had to pith the frog to observe its nervous system.
Gonna pith the head.

Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)
For the demonstration, the scientist needed to pith the specimen swiftly to collect the necessary data.

Compounds

pith helmet

2 7.3

A light hard sun hat made from plant material to protect the head in hot places

pith hat

8.6

A lightweight hat made from thin plant material that protects you from the sun

pith of the argument

Formal

7.5

The main point of a discussion or argument

Surface Forms

pith infinitive

pitted past

pitted past participle

pithing present participle

piths third person singular

Etymology

Pith also came to mean removing the spinal 'marrow' or center in an animal so it cannot move. That's why in science to pith an animal means to destroy the spinal cord to stop movement.