mortify
English
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō (“cause death”), from Latin mors (“death”) + -ficō (“-fy”).
Verb
mortify (third-person singular simple present mortifies, present participle mortifying, simple past and past participle mortified)
- (transitive) To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on. [from 15th c.]
- Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
- Harte
- With fasting mortified, worn out with tears.
- Prior
- Mortify thy learned lust.
- Bible, Col. iii. 5
- Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.
- (transitive, usually used passively) To embarrass, to humiliate. To injure one's dignity. [from 17th c.]
- I was so mortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
- Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
- (obsolete, transitive) To kill. [14th–17th c.]
- (obsolete, transitive) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize. [14th–18th c.]
- Francis Bacon
- Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.
- Hakewill
- He mortified pearls in vinegar.
- Francis Bacon
- (obsolete, transitive) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic. [15th–18th c.]
- 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie [transl. tuer] his legs.
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- (obsolete, transitive) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.
- Evelyn
- the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations
- Addison
- How often is the ambitious man mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought!
- Evelyn
- (transitive, Scotland, law, historical) To grant in mortmain.
- 1876 James Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland, Part II, Chapter 14, p.453 (PDF 2.7 MB):
- the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary
- 1876 James Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland, Part II, Chapter 14, p.453 (PDF 2.7 MB):
- (intransitive) To lose vitality.
- (intransitive) To gangrene.
- (intransitive) To be subdued.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
to discipline by suppressing desires
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to injure one's dignity
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