maim
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
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a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
-
an injury or defect; blemish; lack.
verb
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to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)
-
to make defective
noun
Related Words
Maim, lacerate, mangle, mutilate indicate the infliction of painful and severe injuries on the body. To maim is to injure by giving a disabling wound, or by depriving a person of one or more members or their use: maimed in an accident. To lacerate is to inflict severe cuts and tears on the flesh or skin: to lacerate an arm. To mangle is to chop undiscriminatingly or to crush or rend by blows or pressure, as if by machinery: bodies mangled in a train wreck. To mutilate is to injure the completeness or beauty of a body, especially by cutting off an important member: to mutilate a statue, a tree, a person.
Other Word Forms
- maimedness noun
- maimer noun
- remaim verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of maim
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In “The Air as Air,” Sidney, a vet maimed in Iraq, belongs to a recovery movement focused on breath.
From Los Angeles Times
I love this quote by Ntozake Shange: “i cant count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that i was taught to hate myself in.”
From Los Angeles Times
But when this colossal chess game ends with the Mistress of Mayhem maiming her adversary, “The Art of Personal Chaos” transitions into something even more extraordinary.
From Salon
Maj Lipsky acknowledges the civilian suffering in Gaza and does not deny the imagery of dead and maimed women and children.
From BBC
But doctors warn that such “button batteries” can maim and kill.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
