what does autotomy mean?

AUTOTOMY as NOUN

Meaning
- spontaneous removal or casting off of a body part (as the tail of a lizard or claw or a lobster) especially when the organism is injured or under attack
Hypernyms(s) autotomy is a kind of… Example: animal is a hypernym of mammal, plant is a hypernym of flower
- removal (what does removal mean?)
- remotion (what does remotion mean?)
Derived(s)
- autotomize (what does autotomize mean?)
- autotomise (what does autotomise mean?)