mummify

American  

[muhm-uh-fahy] / ˈmʌm əˌfaɪ /

verb (used with object)

mummified, mummifying

1. to make (a dead body) into a mummy, as by embalming and drying.

2. to make (something) resemble a mummy; dry or shrivel up.

   The dead lizard was mummified by the hot desert air.

3. to preserve (an idea, institution, custom, etc.) that may have outlived its usefulness or relevance.

   Those mummified customs have no place in society today.

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verb (used without object)

mummified, mummifying

1. to dry or shrivel up.

mummify British  

/ ˈmʌmɪˌfaɪ /

verb

1. (tr) to preserve the body of (a human or animal) as a mummy

2. (intr) to dry up; shrivel

3. (tr) to preserve (an outdated idea, institution, etc) while making lifeless

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Other Word Forms

• half-mummified adjective
• mummification noun
• unmummified adjective
• unmummifying adjective

Etymology

Origin of mummify

First recorded in 1620–30; mummy ¹ + -fy

Explanation

To mummify is to make a mummy — to prepare a dead body for preservation after burial. Ancient Egyptians would often mummify bodies by wrapping them in cloth. Don't try that at home! Many cultures have had a tradition of mummification — in other words, they would mummify their dead, often to insure a happy afterlife, by removing the internal organs, treating the body with minerals and oils, and wrapping it. Sometimes burial conditions, like a very dry location, have served to accidentally mummify a body. Mummify adds the verb-forming suffix fy to mummy, rooted in the Arabic mumiyah.

Example Sentences

Hot deserts are just one of many environments in which corpses naturally mummify.

From National Geographic • Aug. 7, 2023

Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the workshops had been used to mummify humans and sacred animals.

From Washington Times • May 27, 2023

These injuries suggest that Dakota’s carcass remained unburied and vulnerable to scavenging for some time after the dinosaur’s death—but if the dino wasn’t rapidly buried, how did it mummify?

From Scientific American • Oct. 14, 2022

Kenneth Tynan summed up his function as dramatic critic in three words: “I mummify transience.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 26, 2021

The afternoon had become as hot as meanness, and since the shirt he was wearing had enough starch in it to mummify two, maybe three, pharaohs, he began to feel he could hardly breathe.

From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt