mutilate

[myoot-l-eyt]

verb (used with object)

mutilated, mutilating 

1. to injure, disfigure, or make imperfect by removing or irreparably damaging parts.

   Vandals mutilated the painting.

   Synonyms: cripple, mar, damage

2. to deprive (a person or animal) of a limb or other essential part.

mutilate

/ ˈmjuːtɪˌleɪt /

verb

1. to deprive of a limb, essential part, etc; maim; dismember

2. to mar, expurgate, or damage (a text, book, etc)

Other Word Forms

• mutilation noun
• mutilative adjective
• mutilatory adjective
• mutilator noun
• self-mutilating adjective
• self-mutilation noun
• unmutilated adjective
• unmutilative adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutilate¹

1525–35; from Latin mutilātus (past participle of mutilāre “to cut off, maim”), equivalent to mutil(us) “maimed, mutilated” + -ātus -ate ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of mutilate¹

C16: from Latin mutilāre to cut off; related to mutilus maimed

Synonym Study

See maim.

Example Sentences

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has told the BBC of how residents came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

Read more on BBC

He exhumed corpses from graveyards in Wisconsin in the 1950s and admitted to killing at least two women whose bodies he then mutilated.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, who smuggled classified documents out of the National Archives and mutilated some of them, also received two years of probation and a fine.

Read more on Salon

They also found human skulls fashioned into soup bowls; lampshades and costumes made from human skin; and mutilated female body parts, among other nightmare fuel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Khalusha was the prime suspect in the murder of more than 40 women whose mutilated bodies were discovered in a disused quarry that became a dumpsite in the capital, Nairobi.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• amputate 
• butcher 
• damage 
• deface 
• disfigure 
• dismember 
• distort 
• hack 
• injure 
• maim 
• mangle 
• ravage