mutilate

American

[myoot-l-eyt] / ˈmyut lˌeɪt /

verb (used with object)

mutilated, mutilating

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

Vandals mutilated the painting.

Synonyms:

cripple, mar, damage
to deprive (a person or animal) of a limb or other essential part.

mutilate British

/ ˈmjuːtɪˌleɪt /

verb

to deprive of a limb, essential part, etc; maim; dismember
to mar, expurgate, or damage (a text, book, etc)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

See maim.

Other Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of mutilate

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

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.

But animal welfare charities worry that any carve-outs would be exploited by smugglers to continue trading, and would see those who illegally mutilate dogs in the UK avoid prosecution.

From BBC • Dec. 6, 2025

“We have concluded on the basis of present evidence that Nosenko was dispatched to the West to mutilate counterintelligence leads which had been revealed by Golitsyn,” Angleton said.

From Washington Times • Jan. 1, 2023

State law is clear: It is a felony offense for anyone to “willfully and unlawfully remove, alter, mutilate, destroy, conceal or obliterate” a public record.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2022

There's times where you don't have to dissect a joke or mutilate a joke or ruin the joke in order to make it clear.

From Salon • Jun. 18, 2022

I don’t know, I guess I always thought I’d turn out okay, no matter how badly my many schools tried to mutilate me.

From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023