MUTILATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Mutilate

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/mjˈutəlˌeɪt/ Listen

noun

Mutilate n. (Zool.) A cetacean, or a sirenian.

verb

Mutilate v. t. (past & past part. mutilated; pres. part. mutilating)

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

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."

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.

adjective

Mutilate adj.

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

(Zool.) Having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.

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Etymology of 'Mutilate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mutilate" Quotes from Famous Books

... though this did not prevent his humming now and then pieces which struck his fancy; and as these little reminiscences usually recurred to him in the mornings, he regaled me with them while he was being dressed. The air that I have heard him thus mutilate most frequently was that ...

— Widger's Quotations from The Memoirs of Napoleon • David Widger

... England, to garble is to pick out, sift out what may serve a particular purpose, and thus destroy or mutilate the ...

— Notes and Queries, Number 235, April 29, 1854 • Various

... instep, and that some of the explorers hacked him with an axe. The old pine had distinct records of axe and fire markings during the year 1540. It was not common for the Indians of the West to burn or mutilate trees, and as it was common for the Spaniards to do so, and as these hackings in the tree seemed to have been made with some edged tool sharper than any possessed by the Indians, it at least seems probable that they were done by the Spaniards. At any ...

— Wild Life on the Rockies • Enos A. Mills

... is improbable. Had he been killed, the Indians would have taken particular pains to mutilate and place his body where the passing column would have seen it. That in itself is good evidence that he is living. The worst that is likely to happen is that he may be held for ...

— Captured by the Navajos • Charles A. Curtis

... as too dark and horrible for belief, and made him feel as he would have done if she had told him that she was going to mutilate her beautiful face, or drink some potion that would make her mad. He clasped his hands and ...

— The American • Henry James

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