MARTYRDOM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does martyrdom mean? 

• MARTYRDOM (noun)
  The noun MARTYRDOM has 2 senses:

1. death that is imposed because of the person's adherence of a religious faith or cause

2. any experience that causes intense suffering

  Familiarity information: MARTYRDOM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MARTYRDOM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Death that is imposed because of the person's adherence of a religious faith or cause

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("martyrdom" is a kind of...):

death; decease; expiry (the event of dying or departure from life)

Derivation:

martyr (one who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty for refusing to renounce their religion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any experience that causes intense suffering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

calvary; martyrdom

Hypernyms ("martyrdom" is a kind of...):

affliction (a cause of great suffering and distress)

Derivation:

martyr (one who suffers for the sake of principle)

 Context examples 

“What color! What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to the hand of the wicked murtherers?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No: such a martyrdom would be monstrous.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Deeply as I have sinned, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It might seem no hardship to some of us, but to a pretty, blithe young girl, it was not only tedious, but very trying, and the thought of Laurie and his friends made it a real martyrdom.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So he groaned on, until he had got into bed again, suffering, I have no doubt, a martyrdom; and then called us in, pretending to have just woke up from a refreshing sleep, and to produce a guinea from under his pillow.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have suffered a martyrdom from their incompetency and caprice.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)