maim

[meym]

verb (used with object)

1. to deprive of the use of some part of the body by wounding or the like; cripple.

   The explosion maimed him for life.

2. to impair; make essentially defective.

   The essay was maimed by deletion of important paragraphs.

   Synonyms: mar, deface, disable, injure

noun

Obsolete.

1. a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.

2. an injury or defect; blemish; lack.

maim

/ meɪm, ˈmeɪmɪdnɪs /

verb

1. to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)

2. to make defective

noun

1. obsolete,  an injury or defect

Other Word Forms

• maimer noun
• remaim verb (used with object)
• maimedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem

Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

C14: from Old French mahaignier to wound, probably of Germanic origin

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

The police force was cast into turmoil after the 2024 overthrow of the autocratic government of now-convicted fugitive Sheikh Hasina, which left at least 1,400 dead and thousands maimed -- many by police gunfire.

Read more on Barron's

The report documented the shooting at point-blank range of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Read more on BBC

According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have deliberately targeted civilians in the city with FPV drones and killed or maimed them - a war crime.

Read more on BBC

In another instance, a bear maimed the hand of a man living in the Chantry Flat area of the Angeles National Forest.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

During this century, in the Middle East, the U.S.-Israel duo has vastly outdone all other entities combined in the categories of killing, maiming and terrorizing.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• disable 
• disfigure 
• dismember 
• hack 
• harm 
• impair 
• incapacitate 
• injure 
• mangle 
• maul 
• mutilate 
• wound