mortify
Americanverb (used with object)
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mortifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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mortified,
past participle, past
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mortifying
present participle
verb (used without object)
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mortifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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mortified,
past participle, past
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mortifying
present participle
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to practice mortification or disciplinary austerities.
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Pathology. to undergo mortification; become gangrened or necrosed.
verb
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(tr) to humiliate or cause to feel shame
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(tr) Christianity to subdue and bring under control by self-denial, disciplinary exercises, etc
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(intr) to undergo tissue death or become gangrenous
Usage
What does mortify mean? Mortify means to humiliate or embarrass in an extreme way. You know when you do something so unbearably embarrassing that you just want to shrivel up and die? That’s what it’s like to feel mortified. Which is fitting because the word comes from a root meaning “death.”Things that are humiliating or extremely embarrassing can be described as mortifying. This feeling of humiliation or extreme embarrassment can be called mortification. Mortify can also be used in a way that relates to literal death. In medical terms, to mortify is to undergo mortification—the death of one part of the body while the rest of the body is alive. This is more technically called gangrene or necrosis. Mortify is also used (less commonly) in a religious context, in which it means to practice ascetic self-discipline with the goal of strengthening one’s will and overcoming the desire to sin. In Christianity, forms of mortification include things like fasting. In some extreme cases, especially in older times, it has included things like self-flagellation—whipping oneself. Example: Even when I do my best not to embarrass my kids, I still end up mortifying them on most occasions.
Synonym Usage
See ashamed.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mortifysimple
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mortifiessimple
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have mortifiedperfect
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has mortifiedperfect
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am mortifyingprogressive
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are mortifyingprogressive
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is mortifyingprogressive
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have been mortifyingperfect progressive
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has been mortifyingperfect progressive
Past
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mortifiedsimple
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had mortifiedperfect
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was mortifyingprogressive
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were mortifyingprogressive
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had been mortifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mortify
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mortifien, from Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificāre “to put to death,” equivalent to Latin morti- (stem of mors ) “death” + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
To mortify someone is to cause them extreme embarrassment. Your mother may not have been trying to mortify you when she showed up at your senior prom with a bunch of unicorn balloons, but she did. The root of the verb mortify is from the Latin word mors, which means “death.” To mortify something used to mean to destroy its life, but now mortify is mostly used when you feel so ashamed or embarrassed you “want to die.” To punish yourself through deprivation from food or another desire, you can mortify that compulsion, but it’s probably best to just mortify your parents by showing up at their work place with a new mohawk.
Vocabulary lists containing mortify
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"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, Part Four
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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:
In a sequence that would mortify anyone averse to audience participation, he gently beseeches a handful of patrons to stand with their hands up and foreheads against the wall, like a row of perpetrators.
From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024
That it seems a choice at all is what should mortify us.
From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024
A few years after I sent the quarterback the audio recording, a friend who lived in his dorm told me that he’d played it aloud for his buddies in an effort to mortify me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2024
“Don’t take advantage of your own position and role to mortify the other.”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2022
Women who had lost their children drifted over little by little, to mortify themselves with possibilities and never-would-bes.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
“The idea that I’d go out with a recent widower just mortifies me,” Carolyn told THR.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2023
It said the spread of English "demeans and mortifies" Italian and proposed that all public and private bodies had to use the language of Dante to promote their goods and services.
From Reuters ● Mar. 31, 2023
Being stalked by an invisible enemy surely mortifies those with an obsessive-compulsive fear of germs, and deepens the distress of many who have experienced waves of uncontrollable anxiety before the epidemic.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2020
Saint-André worries that cases similar to hers are ignored by overenthusiastic doctors – and the thought of patients self-medicating with no professional supervision mortifies her.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 16, 2016
I ought to have read more, for I find I don’t know anything, and it mortifies me.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
“I’m mortified to say, however, I fell hard for this one.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
If I was mortified just to breathe, how could I even think about loving another man?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
The patient's mortified family immediately apologised but the damage had been done, Vicario says, and such experiences leave him feeling powerless, anxious and nervous.
From BBC ● May 12, 2026
For instance, Washington would have been mortified to hear his rigorously trained Virginia Regiment characterized as a lowly militia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
I’d be mortified in front of a man like that.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
Imagine how mortifying it would be if anyone ever read your diary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
She said that as a dyscalculic student that was a "really humiliating and mortifying experience".
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
Little did I know this would turn out to be equal parts amazing and mortifying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the DOJ’s rather mortifying confession and its implications for the broader battle over Trump’s federalization of the Guard.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2025
“Irene Blythe says she witnessed you and Russell in a . . .” The words died in her mouth, apparently too mortifying to say aloud.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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.
