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mortify

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō (“cause death”), from Latin mors (“death”) + -ficō (“-fy”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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mortify (third-person singular simple present mortifies, present participle mortifying, simple past and past participle mortified)

  1. (transitive) To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on. [from 15th c.]
    Synonym: macerate
    Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
  2. (transitive, usually used passively) To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate. [from 17th c.]
    Synonyms: demean, humiliate, shame
    Antonyms: dignify, honor
    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.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To kill. [14th–17th c.]
    Synonyms: dispose of, terminate; see also Thesaurus:kill
    • 1664, John Evelyn, “Of the Mulberry”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber; republished as Sylva: Or A Discourse of Forest Trees, volume 1, London: Arthur Doubleday, 1908, page 205:
      The second Spring after transplanting, purge them of all superfluous shoots and scions, reserving only the most towardly for the future stem; this to be done yearly, as long as they continue in the nursery; and if of the principal stem so left, the frost mortifie any part, cut it off [...]
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize. [14th–18th c.]
    Synonyms: abate, cancel out, diminish, weaken
    • c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Persones Tale; republished as The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900, page 580:
      Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.
    • 1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC:
      He […] mortified them [pearls] in vineger aud drunke them vp
  5. (obsolete, transitive) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic. [15th–18th c.]
    Synonyms: fester, necrotize, rankle, rot, sphacelate
  6. (obsolete, transitive) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.
    Synonyms: disturb, perturb; see also Thesaurus:upset
    • 22 September 1651 (date in diary), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, John Evelyn's Diary
      the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations
    • 1712 January 4 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, December 24, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 257; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
      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!
      The spelling has been modernized.
  7. (transitive, Scots 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
  8. (intransitive) To lose vitality.
    Synonyms: darken, die, fade, wither
    • 1768, Richard Steele, “Act III. Scene I.”, in The Funeral: or, Grief à-la-Mode. A Comedy, Edinburgh: Martin & Wotherspoon, page 47:
      [...] Tis a pure ill-natur'd ſatisfaction to ſee one that was a beauty unfortunately move with the ſame languor, and ſoftneſs of behaviour, that once was charming in her—To ſee, I ſay, her mortify that us'd to kill [...]
  9. (intransitive) To gangrene.
    Synonyms: fester, putrefy
    • 1627, Francis Bacon, “Century IX”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History; republished as The works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, volume 2, Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1852, page 123:
      For the inducing of putrefaction, it were good to try it with flesh or fish exposed to the moonbeams; and again exposed to the air when the moon shineth not, for the like time: to see whether will corrupt sooner: and try it also with capon, or some other fowl, laid abroad, to see whether it will mortify and become tender sooner; try it also with dead flies, or dead worms, having a little water cast upon them, to see whether will putrefy sooner.
  10. (intransitive) To be subdued.
    Synonyms: abate, diminish, quell, subside, wane
    • 1900, Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon‎[1]:
      Trying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; a mortified appetite is never a wise companion; in so far as he has had to mortify an appetite, he will still be the worse man; and of such an one a great deal of cheerfulness will be required in judging life, and a great deal of humility in judging others.
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Translations

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