Definition of "mortification" []

• A feeling of shame, humiliation, or wounded pride. (noun)
• Discipline of the body and the appetites by self-denial or self-inflicted privation. (noun)
• Pathology Death or decay of one part of a living body; gangrene or necrosis. (noun)

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.

• "Page 50 modification of structure occurs, to which the term mortification is applied."
• "GALLAGHER: Well, self-flagellation is an extreme form of self - denial, what they call mortification, and which, in fact, is not unknown to the Catholic religion, or indeed other religions that practice self-denial and that encourage self-denial, sacrifice, for one's own good."
• "And then, but that half a dozen at once endeavoured to keep down her violent hands, would she have beaten herself; as it seems she had often attempted to do from the time the surgeon popt out the word mortification to her."