mutilate
verb (used with object)
to injure, disfigure, or make imperfect by removing or irreparably damaging parts.
mutilated
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past participleof mutilate.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof mutilate.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
mutilateverb (used with object)to injure, disfigure, or make imperfect by removing or irreparably damaging parts.
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.
Mr. Hemming writes that upon Miller’s death, doctors found 23 battle scars, a large wound on his right abdominal cartilage, two rifle balls lodged in his liver, and mutilated fingers on his left hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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
It will also tackle a separate animal welfare issue by closing a loophole which allows dogs and cats which have been mutilated to be brought into Britain.
From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2024
A second piece of bacon was mutilated and consumed in two carnivorous gulps.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
