mummify
Americanverb (used with object)
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mummifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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mummified,
past participle, past
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mummifying
present participle
-
to make (a dead body) into a mummy, as by embalming and drying.
-
to make (something) resemble a mummy; dry or shrivel up.
The dead lizard was mummified by the hot desert air.
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to preserve (an idea, institution, custom, etc.) that may have outlived its usefulness or relevance.
Those mummified customs have no place in society today.
verb (used without object)
-
mummifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mummified,
past participle, past
-
mummifying
present participle
verb
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(tr) to preserve the body of (a human or animal) as a mummy
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(intr) to dry up; shrivel
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(tr) to preserve (an outdated idea, institution, etc) while making lifeless
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mummifysimple
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mummifiessimple
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have mummifiedperfect
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has mummifiedperfect
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am mummifyingprogressive
-
are mummifyingprogressive
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is mummifyingprogressive
-
have been mummifyingperfect progressive
-
has been mummifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
mummifiedsimple
-
had mummifiedperfect
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was mummifyingprogressive
-
were mummifyingprogressive
-
had been mummifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mummify
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
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:
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
In drier climes, it can mummify for years; in wetter ones, a face becomes a skull in weeks.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2019
I remember the Scotch tape ads from the forties: mummify your hand in inside- out Scotch tape, defuzz your clothing.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
In honeybees, this fungus causes an illness known as stonebrood disease, which mummifies the young bees.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2023
She was recently packing for a trip to visit Summum, a group in Utah that mummifies pets.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2011
Your team mummifies you with five tight belts.
From Time Magazine Archive
And, again rightly or wrongly, I have also contended that the hand of purpose deadens and mummifies story.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury
It is often claimed that phosphorus eaten by rats or mice dries up or mummifies the body so that no odor results.
From House Rats and Mice Farmers' Bulletin 896 by David E. Lantz
Researchers determined that the 1.2m long mummified fish was a tarpon, a species no longer found in New Zealand waters.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 12, 2026
He remained frozen in the ice until two German hikers stumbled across his mummified remains in 1991 in the northern Italian region of South Tyrol.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
The 43-year-old still appreciates the series—and for more than the thrill of learning how investigators identified a mummified pregnant woman hidden in a barrel on Long Island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Their partially mummified bodies were found at their home by maintenance workers at their gated Santa Fe community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
He ripped away the sail that mummified her.
From "Adrift" by Paul Griffin
Rühli says he believes this could have inspired ancient Egyptians to start mummifying their honored dead.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 7, 2023
As for the legacy or genealogy side of things, there are chasmic unknowns to mummifying yourself in the digital world.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2022
That's the question my Food52 colleagues asked when they saw me mummifying avocado halves in plastic wrap to prepare them for life eternal in the freezer.
From Salon ● May 15, 2021
I had slept more soundly than I had expected, given the hard ground beneath me and the mummifying strictures of the sleeping bag.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 24, 2020
“We’re collecting materials for our Great Tomb Project. We’d like to keep our things here until we need them. We’re mummifying someone this week.”
From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina
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.
