How does cutting oozes kill them?

So i friggin love the oozes in D&D. in fact one of my favorite unapogeletic gods in D&D is Juiblex. However the biology of oozes always confuses the hell out of me. I understand why blund weapons woulnt do much to an ooze but why cutting it into pieces kills it? Cant it just crawl back together?

I guess its sort of like john carpenter's the thing. Individual bits of it aren't very smart and don't try to reform so they move away trying to survive on its own.

I guess they have a nervous system that you cut?

>not poking them with a straw and drinking them

Truly the ooze are a unique and mysterious species.

I'd guess it's like an amoeba: they've got a weird wiry skeleton and a (mostly permeable) membrane around them, both of which take poorly to being chopped apart. Once you break them up enough, the ooze falls apart and lays there as a puddle of acid until it either dries up or is collected by some alchemist or whatever.

I like to treat them as jellyfish on land instead of puddles of goop. solves a lot of the "why can X hurt a puddle of slime?" questions.

I actually have an explanation for this one! Generally, if you have a good DM, the slime will split into smaller slimes every time you slash it, with a cut off point to how small they can get without ceasing to function.

Can a monk punch slime?

The Ooze is made up of cells, many of which are destroyed every time you slash through them. The pieces around the wound probably seal back together but that doesn't save the ones that got pulped by your weapon.