martyr
Americannoun
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a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce their religion.
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a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause.
Her death has made her a martyr to the cause of social justice.
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a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering.
The patient was a martyr to severe headaches.
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a person who seeks sympathy or attention by feigning or exaggerating pain, deprivation, etc.
verb (used with object)
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to persecute for supporting a belief or cause, especially by putting to death.
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to torment or torture.
noun
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a person who suffers death rather than renounce his religious beliefs
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a person who suffers greatly or dies for a cause, belief, etc
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a person who suffers from poor health, misfortune, etc
he's a martyr to rheumatism
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facetious a person who feigns suffering to gain sympathy, help, etc
verb
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to kill as a martyr
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to make a martyr of
Other Word Forms
- martyrish adjective
- martyrization noun
- martyrly adverb
- unmartyred adjective
Etymology
Origin of martyr
First recorded before 900; Middle English noun martir, marter, Old English martyr from Old French and Late Latin, from Late Greek mártyr, dialect variant of Greek mártys, mártyros “witness”; verb derivative of noun
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.
Season 1’s subjects ranged from Francis of Assisi to Moses the Black, a robber turned monk and martyr in the fourth century.
Archaeologists believe the site began as the burial place of Christian martyr St. Neophytos, said to have been killed by Roman soldiers on the shore of the lake in A.D.
On streets, banners with the faces of fighters killed in battle hang from lamp-posts, celebrating them as "martyrs of the resistance".
From BBC
He’s an unhappy but willing martyr whose heart is slowly breaking the entire time.
From Los Angeles Times
The bustling population of the refugee camp that gave Jenin its reputation as the martyrs’ capital?
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.
