mutilate
Americanverb (used with object)
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mutilates,
present (3rd person singular)
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mutilated,
past participle, past
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mutilating
present participle
verb
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to deprive of a limb, essential part, etc; maim; dismember
-
to mar, expurgate, or damage (a text, book, etc)
Synonym Usage
See maim.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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mutilationnoun
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mutilatornoun
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self-mutilationnoun
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mutilativeadjective
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mutilatoryadjective
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self-mutilatingadjective
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unmutilatedadjective
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unmutilativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mutilatesimple
-
mutilatessimple
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have mutilatedperfect
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has mutilatedperfect
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am mutilatingprogressive
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are mutilatingprogressive
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is mutilatingprogressive
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have been mutilatingperfect progressive
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has been mutilatingperfect progressive
Past
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mutilatedsimple
-
had mutilatedperfect
-
was mutilatingprogressive
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were mutilatingprogressive
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had been mutilatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mutilate
1525–35; from Latin mutilātus (past participle of mutilāre “to cut off, maim”), equivalent to mutil(us) “maimed, mutilated” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
Mutilate is a verb that means to injure or ruin, usually in a brutal or messy way. If you drop a cantaloupe into a wood chipper, you'll mutilate that poor melon, with chunks of fruit and rind flying everywhere. Mutilate can also mean altering an object so it's unrecognizable. Once you mutilate something, it'll no longer resemble its original form. Celebrities who get too much plastic surgery are said to mutilate their faces, because they no longer look like themselves. Mutilate can also describe causing a disfiguring injury. Monsters and evil villains in horror movies tend to mutilate their victims instead of neatly murdering them.
Vocabulary lists containing mutilate
"The Hunger Games" Vocabulary from Chapter 6
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Fallen Angels
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The Color of My Words
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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.
See Examples For:
Prosecutors accuse the former president of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence,” and of inducing another person to do so.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2023
“We have concluded on the basis of present evidence that Nosenko was dispatched to the West to mutilate counterintelligence leads which had been revealed by Golitsyn,” Angleton said.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
"They've actually forced the cane toad to get rid of the toxin itself, they haven't had to mutilate it in any way. The cane toad is doing all the work for them."
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2022
“Sitting still in the modern world, going deep inside yourself, is not an easy thing. If you start to mutilate sacred space, you start to lose touch with a big part of being human.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
I don’t know, I guess I always thought I’d turn out okay, no matter how badly my many schools tried to mutilate me.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
The law punishes “whoever corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates or conceals a record, document or other object … or otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2022
There was no camaraderie because this system mutilates your emotions - you feel nothing.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2017
Especially if the Common App mutilates the formatting on applicant essays and you say there’s no way to fix it.
From Slate ● Nov. 25, 2013
If it mutilates the magazine, the kids will buy a second as a collectible.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2010
He may have begun his work with the purpose of attacking a mischievous and superstitious system that mutilates human life, but he certainly continued it because he became interested in his creations.
From Diderot and the Encyclopædists Volume II. by John Morley
Aristotle recognized that we take pleasure in viewing fictional representations of tragedies, suffering and mutilated corpses that would repulse us if we confronted them in reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
Our glamorous and gruesome history is all there in a close-up of “Chinatown’s” Jack Nicholson: a movie star with a mutilated nose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026
They can cause dangerous diseases like Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida auris among our own kind, massacre beloved fellow animals like frogs and bats and even turn less-charismatic animals like cicadas into horrifyingly mutilated zombies.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2024
Construction cranes were used to lift out the burnt-out and mutilated vehicles.
From Seattle Times ● May 2, 2024
He brushed by a gaunt, cadaverous, trustful man in a black raincoat with a star-shaped scar in his cheek and a glossy mutilated depression the size of an egg in one temple.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Do you feel the Endangered Species Act provides the government with enough tools to stave off this so-called "mutilating of the tree of life," at least in the United States?
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2023
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned, however, against "mutilating" the project in a letter to Rishi Sunak.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2023
“Moon Knight” is not the first time that an MCU title has been called out for mutilating an Asian language.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2022
Both testicles were eventually removed – he called it “the mutilating surgery”.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2020
Four of the men went to prison for six months for knowingly destroying or mutilating their cards.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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