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maim

[ meym ]
/ meɪm /
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See synonyms for: maim / maimed on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object)
to deprive of the use of some part of the body by wounding or the like; cripple: The explosion maimed him for life.
to impair; make essentially defective: The essay was maimed by deletion of important paragraphs.
noun Obsolete.
a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
an injury or defect; blemish; lack.
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Origin of maim

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

synonym study for maim

1. 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 WORDS FROM maim

maim·er, nounre·maim, verb (used with object)

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH maim

maim , mayhem (see synonym study at the current entry)

Words nearby maim

mail-order house, mail-out, mailroom, mailsack, mailshot, maim, mai mai, Maiman, maimed, Maimonides, main
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to maim

castrate, disable, disfigure, dismember, hack, harm, impair, incapacitate, injure, mangle, maul, mutilate, wound, batter, blemish, break, crush, damage, deface, disqualify

How to use maim in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for maim

maim
/ (meɪm) /
verb (tr)
to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)
to make defective
noun
obsolete an injury or defect

Derived forms of maim

maimedness (ˈmeɪmɪdnɪs), nounmaimer, noun

Word Origin for maim

C14: from Old French mahaignier to wound, probably of Germanic origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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