maim
Americanverb (used with object)
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maims,
present (3rd person singular)
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maimed,
past participle, past
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maiming
present participle
noun
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a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
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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)
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to make defective
noun
Synonym Usage
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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maimsimple
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maimssimple
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have maimedperfect
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has maimedperfect
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am maimingprogressive
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are maimingprogressive
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is maimingprogressive
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have been maimingperfect progressive
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has been maimingperfect progressive
Past
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maimedsimple
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had maimedperfect
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was maimingprogressive
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were maimingprogressive
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had been maimingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of maim
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem
Explanation
To maim something is to disfigure it through force or violence. Wartime battles have a tendency to maim soldiers. The verb maim is related to mayhem, which, historically, was the act of hurting another person so badly that they couldn’t defend themselves. To maim a person or animal, even if it’s an accident, is to render them defenseless or disfigured, and it frequently includes the loss of a limb. The goal of driving defensively is to avoid an accident that could maim you, your passengers, or other people on the road.
Vocabulary lists containing maim
A Long Way Gone
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"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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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:
The court’s action imperils the CPSC’s ability to ban products that may maim or kill consumers, including children, giving corporations freer rein to flood the market with dangerous goods.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2025
In severe cases, he said, offenders can be required to plant two trees for every one they maim.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2023
"Even if they're fed and sterilized, cats retain their instinct to hunt. They are not native wildlife—they are an invasive species. They terrorize, maim, and kill animals who don't stand a chance against them."
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2022
They can kill or maim trees, leaving scarring that allows an entry point for other tree pests and diseases which can stunt their growth.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2022
Thou wilt do more than any other knight, and in thy strength ye may well maim yourself.'
From King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls by Gilbert, Henry
No matter what happens to them — no matter how the world paints them, vilifies them, maims them — they were here, and at least for a moment, they owned their own lives.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2019
Agnieszka is a simple village girl who is gifted to her local wizard, The Dragon, as payment for thwarting the advance of the ominous Wood, which kills or maims any who enter it.
From The Guardian ● May 21, 2019
It’s a pervasive scourge that damages all of us, that directly maims the lives of women and leaves us all in chains.
From Salon ● May 16, 2016
Although it maims its victims, brucellosis seldom kills them.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Oh, defend us from death and horrible maims,** he is reported to have said, “for I see well we be in great peril of death.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
She’d begun painting only months earlier, after being injured in a traffic accident that maimed her for life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
But many other protesters — understandably aroused by videos of starving, maimed, or dying Gazan children — aren’t thinking that far ahead.
From Seattle Times ● May 6, 2024
Many more are maimed by the venom’s muscle-destroying toxins, as existing treatments are largely ineffective at preventing tissue death.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 16, 2024
“The vast majority of people who are being killed or maimed by snake bites are village farmers and children working out in the fields without shoes.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
He jerked to his feet and made his way wordlessly to the doors, limping on his maimed feet.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Yes, SARS-2 is still spreading and maiming people today, but widespread immunity from past infections and vaccines has made the virus much less deadly.
From Salon ● May 11, 2026
Navy has faced, maiming more ships than any other means of attack since World War II, according to a U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
It added that its mortality and outcomes data does not reflect claims of unnecessary deaths and maiming.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
"I believe this will end up in dialogue ... rather than killing and maiming and chasing away."
From Reuters ● Nov. 21, 2023
“Most people are going to have a hard enough time accepting that we’re not monsters, without reports about us maiming innocent people,” Clancy said.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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.
