mummy

¹ American  

[muhm-ee] / ˈmʌm i /

noun

PLURAL

mummies

1. the dead body of a human being or animal, treated with natural or chemical desiccants and preservatives as part of preparation for burial, as notably practiced in ancient Egyptian and South American cultures.

   The Egyptian mummies on display, characteristically wrapped in multiple layers of linen, are more than 3,500 years old.

2. a dead body dried and preserved by nature.

3. a withered or shrunken living being.

   When this mummy of a guy walked in, we were not expecting him to say that he’s our new fitness coach!

4. a dry, shriveled fruit, tuber, or other plant organ, resulting from any of several fungal diseases.

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verb (used with object)

mummied, mummying

1. Archaic.  to make into or cause to resemble a mummy; mummify.

mummy ² American  

[muhm-ee] / ˈmʌm i /

noun

Chiefly British Informal.

PLURAL

mummies

1. mommy.

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mummy ¹ British  

/ ˈmʌmɪ /

noun

1. an embalmed or preserved body, esp as prepared for burial in ancient Egypt

2. obsolete  the substance of such a body used medicinally

3. a mass of pulp

4. a dark brown pigment

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mummy ² British  

/ ˈmʌmɪ /

noun

1. a child's word for mother 1

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Other Word Forms

• unmummied adjective

Etymology

Origin of mummy¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mummie, from Medieval Latin mummia, from Arabic mūmiyah “mummy,” literally, “bitumen,” from Persian mūm “wax”

Origin of mummy²

First recorded in 1815–25; mum ⁴ + -y ²

Example Sentences

Using old field photographs and careful detective work, Sereno and his colleagues retraced the locations in east-central Wyoming where several classic dinosaur mummies had first been uncovered in the early 1900s.

From Science Daily

This fits with our knowledge of the land of the pharaohs as a society that revered cats, immortalising them in art and preserving them as mummies.

From BBC

"School is such an important part of their life for so many reasons and I feel they have been really badly neglected and as a mummy, this makes me really sad."

From BBC

"My mummy died on 24 March 2020, and the Chair has made it clear that had a lockdown been a week earlier, people like my mummy would have been saved."

From BBC

While the coffins are now at the museum, the mummy remains in Luxor.

From Barron's

Related Words

• dwindle
• shrink
• wilt
• wither