to put away
1
7.7
- phrasal verb
- /pʊt əˈweɪ/
- The owners made the difficult decision to put away their beloved cat when it could no longer walk due to pain.
Examples
-
Wasn't there an old dog put away by poison at Hindley about two years ago?
-
After her long illness, the veterinarian suggested it was time to put away the old dog to prevent further suffering.
-
They had to put her away.
-
Faced with the dog's incurable condition, the family agreed to put away their pet peacefully.
Synonyms
52
7.6
To kill someone as a legal punishment
50
7.3
To stop someone's suffering or worry, sometimes by ending their life
38
5.5
To kill an animal to stop its suffering
21
8.5
Causing a person or animal to die without pain to stop suffering
3
5.8
Kill a sick or very old animal to stop its pain
2
4.6
Put an animal to death because it is seriously ill or dangerous
1
9.9
To cause a painless death to stop a person or animal from suffering
Antonyms
How Humane
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to dismiss or set aside' is directly related to 'put' (place) + 'away' (to a removed/stored location), so a learner who knows both words can infer a concrete sense like 'put aside' or 'store'. However, the specific mental sense 'stop thinking about' is a metaphorical extension from the spatial meaning and may not be fully predictable without prior exposure to this figurative use, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Put away for animals may come from the gentle image of putting an animal away from pain, like placing it to rest. So it means 'to end the life of an animal humanely to stop its suffering'.