mortal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɔː.təl/
ipa: /ˈmɔɹ.təl/
ipa: [ˈmɔɹ.ɾɫ̩]
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)təl
Forms: form: more mortal
form: most mortal
Etymology: From Middle English mortal, mortel, from Old French mortal, and their source Latin mortālis, from mors (“death”). In this sense, displaced native deadly, from Old English dēadlīċ.
Senses: glosses: Susceptible to death by aging, sickness, injury, or wound; not immortal.
examples: text: Blyndfold he was; and in his cruell fist
 A mortall bow and arrowes keene did hold […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: into the plain
Disgorged at length, the dead and the alive,
In one dread mass, were parted, and the stain
Of blood from mortal steel fell o’er the fields like rain.
ref: 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 263:
glosses: Causing death; deadly, fatal, killing, lethal (now only of wounds, injuries etc.).
glosses: Punishable by death.
examples: text: Last of all, against himself he turns his sword, but missing the mortal place, with his poniard finishes the work.
ref: 1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC:
glosses: Fatally vulnerable.
examples: text: Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
 Or in the natal or the mortal hour.
ref: 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Of or relating to the time of death.
examples: text: mortal enemy
text: The nymph grew pale, and in a mortal fright.
ref: 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of his confessions and make an end of me.
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
text: Although the Japanese have engaged with little hesitation, they are as surprised as the Americans to be fighting this battle. Although the escort-carrier groups have been under sporadic air attack for over a week, these attacks appear to have been conducted by aircraft from the Japanese Army, who, of course, have utterly failed to mention any of this to their counterparts-dash-rivals-dash-mortal enemies in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
ref: 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 13:20 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022:
glosses: Affecting as if with power to kill; deathly.
examples: text: mortal wit or knowledge; mortal power
text: The voice of God
 To mortal ear is dreadful.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: “It's just...I hesitated to call the police. I wasn't sure you'd appreciate their presence.” He sure wouldn't. Mortal scum he could dispatch. Mortal law enforcement he avoided at all costs[…]
ref: 2012, Olivia Gates, Immortal, Insatiable, Indomitable, Harlequin, →ISBN:
glosses: Human; belonging or pertaining to people who are mortal.
examples: text: a sermon lasting two mortal hours
glosses: Very painful or tedious; wearisome.
examples: text: Thats^([sic]) nothing, says Tequila Sheila, who told how the summer she was housemaid in The Saint Columba she took this guy back to the staff flats while mortal on slammers and crashed out on him before anything could happen.
ref: 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 13:
synonyms: mortalled
glosses: Very drunk.
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: Causing spiritual death.
raw_tags: of a sin
Synonyms: sense: causing death
word: fatal
sense: causing death
word: lethal
sense: causing death
word: baneful
Derived terms: amortal
mortal coil
mortal combat
mortalin
mortalise
mortalism
mortalist
mortality
mortalize
mortally
mortalness
mortal remains
mortal sin
nonmortal
perimortal
postmortal
premortal
shuffle off this mortal coil