mutilate
Americanverb (used with object)
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mutilates,
present (3rd person singular)
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mutilated,
past participle, past
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mutilating
present participle
verb
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to deprive of a limb, essential part, etc; maim; dismember
-
to mar, expurgate, or damage (a text, book, etc)
Synonym Usage
See maim.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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mutilationnoun
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mutilatornoun
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self-mutilationnoun
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mutilativeadjective
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mutilatoryadjective
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self-mutilatingadjective
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unmutilatedadjective
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unmutilativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mutilatesimple
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mutilatessimple
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have mutilatedperfect
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has mutilatedperfect
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am mutilatingprogressive
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are mutilatingprogressive
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is mutilatingprogressive
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have been mutilatingperfect progressive
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has been mutilatingperfect progressive
Past
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mutilatedsimple
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had mutilatedperfect
-
was mutilatingprogressive
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were mutilatingprogressive
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had been mutilatingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
Mutilate is a verb that means to injure or ruin, usually in a brutal or messy way. If you drop a cantaloupe into a wood chipper, you'll mutilate that poor melon, with chunks of fruit and rind flying everywhere. Mutilate can also mean altering an object so it's unrecognizable. Once you mutilate something, it'll no longer resemble its original form. Celebrities who get too much plastic surgery are said to mutilate their faces, because they no longer look like themselves. Mutilate can also describe causing a disfiguring injury. Monsters and evil villains in horror movies tend to mutilate their victims instead of neatly murdering them.
Vocabulary lists containing mutilate
"The Hunger Games" Vocabulary from Chapter 6
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Fallen Angels
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The Color of My Words
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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:
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
It would stiffen the maximum penalties for people who willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate or alter such records from $1,000 and one year in prison to $10,000 and two years in prison.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
One particular law makes it a felony for someone in possession of government records to willfully mutilate, obliterate or destroy them.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 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
The provision covers “whoever corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates or conceals a record, document or other object...or otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2022
There was no camaraderie because this system mutilates your emotions - you feel nothing.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2017
Especially if the Common App mutilates the formatting on applicant essays and you say there’s no way to fix it.
From Slate ● Nov. 25, 2013
If it mutilates the magazine, the kids will buy a second as a collectible.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2010
He mutilates it by omitting the more orthodox portion of it—the very portion he would have retained had he believed it to be genuine.
From Abraham Lincoln: Was He A Christian? by John B. Remsburg
Aristotle recognized that we take pleasure in viewing fictional representations of tragedies, suffering and mutilated corpses that would repulse us if we confronted them in reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
Our glamorous and gruesome history is all there in a close-up of “Chinatown’s” Jack Nicholson: a movie star with a mutilated nose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026
They can cause dangerous diseases like Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida auris among our own kind, massacre beloved fellow animals like frogs and bats and even turn less-charismatic animals like cicadas into horrifyingly mutilated zombies.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2024
Construction cranes were used to lift out the burnt-out and mutilated vehicles.
From Seattle Times ● May 2, 2024
A second piece of bacon was mutilated and consumed in two carnivorous gulps.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Conservationists say they hate mutilating these anmals, whose magnificent horns are integral to their being.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2025
Former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned, however, against "mutilating" the project in a letter to Rishi Sunak.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2023
I’ve heard countless stories from friends of the anxiety that comes from mutilating a piece of clothing, hoping that the finished product doesn’t look atrocious.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
Both testicles were eventually removed – he called it “the mutilating surgery”.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2020
“Professor,” drawled Malfoy, “Weasley’s mutilating my roots, sir.”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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