MUTILATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mutilate mean? 

• MUTILATE (verb)
  The verb MUTILATE has 3 senses:

1. destroy or injure severely

2. alter so as to make unrecognizable

3. destroy or injure severely

  Familiarity information: MUTILATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MUTILATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mutilate    ... he / she / it mutilates   
Past simple: mutilated   
Past participle: mutilated   
-ing form: mutilating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Destroy or injure severely

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cut up; mangle; mutilate

Context example:

The madman mutilates art work

Hypernyms (to "mutilate" is one way to...):

damage (inflict damage upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

mutilation (an injury that causes disfigurement or that deprives you of a limb or other important body part)

mutilator (a person who mutilates or destroys or disfigures or cripples)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Alter so as to make unrecognizable

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

mangle; murder; mutilate

Context example:

The tourists murdered the French language

Hypernyms (to "mutilate" is one way to...):

distort; falsify; garble; warp (make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Destroy or injure severely

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

mar; mutilate

Context example:

mutilated bodies

Hypernyms (to "mutilate" is one way to...):

maim (injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration or mutilation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mutilate"):

force out; gouge (force with the thumb)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

mutilation (an injury that causes disfigurement or that deprives you of a limb or other important body part)

mutilator (a person who mutilates or destroys or disfigures or cripples)

 Context examples 

“Since you have preserved my narration,” said he, “I would not that a mutilated one should go down to posterity.”

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But why do it at all? The girl is dead. Why mutilate her poor body without need?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"On this arm, I have neither hand nor nails," he said, drawing the mutilated limb from his breast, and showing it to me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Ah, Bill, Bill, we have seen a sight of times, us two, since I lost them two talons, holding up his mutilated hand.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Examples: surgical reconstruction, less mutilating surgery, psychological counseling.

(Breast Cancer, Treatment and Rehabilitation, NCI Thesaurus)

She rummaged in a bureau, and presently she produced a photograph of a woman, shamefully defaced and mutilated with a knife.

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

A disorder characterized by an enduring pattern of unstable self-image and mood together with volatile interpersonal relationships, self-damaging impulsivity, recurrent suicidal threats or gestures and/or self-mutilating behavior.

(Borderline personality disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Further, mutations in the gene are associated with congenital insensitivity to pain, anhidrosis, self-mutilating behavior, mental retardation and several other cancers.

(NTRK1 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

With a sinking heart, filled with pity and admiration for these two gallant men, I longed that every bout might be the last, and yet the Time! was hardly out of Jackson’s mouth before they had both sprung from their second’s knees, with laughter upon their mutilated faces and chaffing words upon their bleeding lips.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Will He accept a mutilated sacrifice?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)