# mortify
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈmɔːtɪfaɪ/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈmoɹtɪfaɪ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### 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.]
    Synonym: macerate
    Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
** 1767, Walter Harte, Eulogius: Or, The Charitable Mason:With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears.
** 1688, Matthew Prior, An Ode:Mortify thy learned lust.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Colossians 3:5:Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.
* (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.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC: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.]
    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 [...]
* (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
* (obsolete, transitive) To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic. [15th–18th c.]
    Synonyms: fester, necrotize, rankle, rot, sphacelate
** 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie [translating tuer] his legs.
* (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.
* (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
* (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 [...]
* (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.
* (intransitive) To be subdued.
    Synonyms: abate, diminish, quell, subside, wane
** 1900, Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon‎: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.

#### Related terms

* mortification