mortify
[mawr-tuh-fahy]
- to humiliate or shame, as by injury to one's pride or self-respect.
- to subjugate (the body, passions, etc.) by abstinence, ascetic discipline, or self-inflicted suffering.
- Pathology. to affect with gangrene or necrosis.
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- to practice mortification or disciplinary austerities.
- Pathology. to undergo mortification; become gangrened or necrosed.
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Origin of mortify
1350–1400; Middle English mortifien < Middle French mortifier < Late Latin mortificāre “to put to death,” equivalent to Latin morti- (stem of mors) “death” + -ficāre -fy
Synonyms
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1. See ashamed.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
annoydisgracesubduedispleasechagrindeflateconfoundvexhumiliatecontroldiscomfitdenyridiculeaffrontchastenbelittlehumbleharasscrushshameExamples from the Web for mortify
Contemporary Examples
Fallon: Christopher Meloni is perfectly cast as a father who lives to mortify his teenage kids.
Historical Examples
The intention is, I tell you plainly, to mortify you into a sense of your duty.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
But your kings do not allow so small a thing to vex or mortify them.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
Though I showed nothing of it, it served only to mortify me.
The Autobiography of Madame GuyonJeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon
To mortify her the more, she was landed at Traitors' Stairs.
Fox's Book of MartyrsJohn Foxe
But she passed the matter over in silence, not caring to mortify him.
The Adventures of Maya the BeeWaldemar Bonsels
mortify
- (tr) to humiliate or cause to feel shame
- (tr) Christianity to subdue and bring under control by self-denial, disciplinary exercises, etc
- (intr) to undergo tissue death or become gangrenous
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Word Origin
C14: via Old French from Church Latin mortificāre to put to death, from Latin mors death + facere to do
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for mortify
v.
late 14c., "to kill," from Old French mortefiier "destroy, overwhelm, punish," from Late Latin mortificare "cause death, kill, put to death," literally "make dead," from mortificus "producing death," from Latin mors (genitive mortis) "death" (see mortal (adj.)) + root of facere "to make" (see factitious). Religious sense of "to subdue the flesh by abstinence and discipline" first attested early 15c. Sense of "humiliate" first recorded 1690s (cf. mortification). Related: Mortified; mortifying.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
mortify
(môr′tə-fī′)- To undergo mortification; to become gangrenous or to necrotize.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.