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Definition of "mutilate" []

  • To deprive of a limb or an essential part; cripple. (verb-transitive)
  • To disfigure by damaging irreparably: mutilate a statue. See Synonyms at batter1. (verb-transitive)
  • To make imperfect by excising or altering parts. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "mutilate" in a sentence
  • "I use the word mutilate, because while it may be artistic to you, lets face it, clinically speaking, its mutilation to everyone else."
  • "As for the instinct to mutilate, that is as easily accounted for as any other inherited habit, whether of man to mutilate cattle, or of ants to make slaves, or of birds to make their nests."
  • "Most women who have had hysterectomies to be relieved of painful periods are not going to take kindly to the word's "mutilate" and I wonder how the words used here make breast cancer patients who have lost breasts feel?"