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.
nounObsolete.
a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
an injury or defect; blemish; lack.
Origin of maim
1250–1300;Middle Englishmayme, variant of mahaymemayhem
Related formsmaimed·ness, nounmaim·er, nounre·maim, verb (used with object)self-maimed, adjectiveun·maimed, adjectiveCan be confusedmaimmayhem (see synonym study at the current entry)
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.2. injure, disable, deface, mar.
c.1300, maimen, from Old French mahaignier "injure, wound, muitilate, cripple, disarm," possibly from Vulgar Latin *mahanare (cf. Provençal mayanhar, Italian magagnare), of unknown origin; or possibly from a Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *mait- (cf. Old Norse meiða "to hurt," related to mad (adj.)), or from PIE root *mai- "to cut." Related: Maimed; maiming.
