maim
Americanverb (used with object)
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
Related Words
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
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.
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
I love this quote by Ntozake Shange: “i cant count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that i was taught to hate myself in.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2025
Only the owner of a carrier or racing pigeon can injure, kill, maim, trap or detain their bird.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 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
"Far and sure! far and sure!" fill the bumper and drain it, May our motto for ever endure; May time never maim it, nor dishonour stain it; Then drink, brothers, drink, "Far and sure!"
From Poems on Golf by Society, Edinburgh Burgess Golfing
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.
