MUTILATE

mutilate, mar

(verb) destroy or injure severely; “mutilated bodies”

mutilate, mangle, cut up

(verb) destroy or injure severely; “The madman mutilates art work”

mangle, mutilate, murder

(verb) alter so as to make unrecognizable; “The tourists murdered the French language”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Verb

mutilate (third-person singular simple present mutilates, present participle mutilating, simple past and past participle mutilated)

To physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb.

To destroy beyond recognition.

(figuratively) To render imperfect or defective.

Synonyms

• maim

• mangle

Adjective

mutilate (not comparable)

(obsolete) Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.

(zoology) Having fin-like appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean does.

Anagrams

• ultimate

Source: Wiktionary

Mu"ti*late, a. Etym: [L. mutilatus, p.p. of mutilare to mutilate, fr. mutilus maimed; cf. Gr. Mutton.]

1. Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated. Sir T. Browne.

2. (Zoöl.)

Definition: Having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.

Mu"ti*late, n. (Zoöl.)

Definition: A cetacean, or a sirenian.

Mu"ti*late, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mutilated; p. pr. & vb. n. Mutilating.]

1. To cut off or remove a limb or essential part of; to maim; to cripple; to hack; as, to mutilate the body, a statue, etc.

2. To destroy or remove a material part of, so as to render imperfect; as, to mutilate the orations of Cicero. Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho. Addison. Mutilated gear, Mutilated wheel (Mach.), a gear wheel from a portion of whose periphery the cogs are omitted. It is used for giving intermittent movements.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition