mortify
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɔːtɪfaɪ/
ipa: /ˈmoɹtɪfaɪ/
Forms: form: mortifies
form: mortifying
form: mortified
form: mortified
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō (“cause death”), from Latin mors (“death”) + -ficō (“-fy”).
Senses: examples: text: Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.
text: With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears.
ref: 1767, Walter Harte, Eulogius: Or, The Charitable Mason:
text: Mortify thy learned lust.
ref: 1688, Matthew Prior, An Ode:
text: Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Colossians 3:5:
synonyms: macerate
glosses: To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.
examples: text: 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.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: demean
humiliate
shame
antonyms: dignify
honor
glosses: To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.
raw_tags: used passively
examples: text: 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 [...]
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: dispose of
word: terminate
word: annihilate
word: bag
word: baptize
word: bereave of life
word: blight
word: bring down
word: bump off
word: bury
word: cack
word: compromised to a permanent end
word: croak
word: crush
word: dash
word: deactivate
word: dead
word: demolish
word: destroy
word: dispatch
word: dispose of
word: do
word: do in
word: dust
word: eliminate
word: end
word: eradicate
word: ex
word: exterminate
word: finish
word: finish off
word: flatten
word: grease
word: knock off
word: lay waste to
word: make away with
word: mortify
word: neutralize
word: obliterate
word: off
word: pay off
word: pick off
word: polish off
word: pop off
word: punch someone's ticket
word: put an end to
word: put down
word: put someone out of their misery
word: put six feet under
word: put to sleep
word: ravage
word: rub out
word: ruin
word: scotch
word: scupper
word: scuttle
word: send to eternity
word: send to hell
word: send to the grave
word: send to the great beyond
word: send to the next life
word: slay
word: slaughter
word: smash
word: smite
word: snuff
word: squash
word: stiff
word: stop someone's clock
word: take
word: terminate
word: terminate with extreme prejudice
word: top off
word: top
word: torpedo
word: take care of
word: take down
word: take out
word: waste
word: wax
word: wet
word: whack
word: wipe out
word: wreck
glosses: To kill.
examples: text: Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.
ref: c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Persones Tale; republished as The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900, page 580:
text: Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.
ref: 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:
text: He […]mortified them [pearls] in vineger aud drunke them vp
ref: 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:
synonyms: abate
cancel out
diminish
weaken
glosses: To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.
examples: text: He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital.
text: 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
text: 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!
ref: 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:
synonyms: word: disturb
word: perturb
word: agitate
word: freak
word: bother
word: bring down
word: discompose
word: disconcert
word: enturbulate
word: disturb
word: mortify
word: perturb
word: put out
word: ruffle
word: throw off balance
word: unsettle
word: upset
glosses: To affect with vexation or chagrin.
examples: text: Near-synonym: petrify
text: Please don't mortify your mother by telling her what a stupidly dangerous thing you did last night.
synonyms: word: frighten
word: alarm
word: affright
word: appall
word: dismay
word: fray
word: frighten
word: grill
word: give someone the shits
word: harrow
word: horrify
word: make someone's blood run cold
word: mortify
word: petrify
word: scare
word: scare straight
word: scare the bejeebers out of
word: scare the hell out of
word: scare the pants off of
word: scare the shit out of
word: terrorize
word: terrify
word: spook
glosses: To scare.
glosses: To humble; to depress.
examples: text: the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary
ref: 1876 James Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland, Part II, Chapter 14, p.453 (PDF 2.7 MB)
qualifier: Scots law
glosses: To grant in mortmain.
examples: text: [...] 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 [...]
ref: 1768, Richard Steele, “Act III. Scene I.”, in The Funeral: or, Grief à-la-Mode. A Comedy, Edinburgh: Martin & Wotherspoon, page 47:
synonyms: darken
die
fade
wither
glosses: To lose vitality.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
synonyms: fester
necrotize
rankle
rot
sphacelate
decay
glosses: To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
synonyms: fester
putrefy
glosses: To gangrene.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1900, Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon:
synonyms: abate
diminish
quell
subside
wane
glosses: To be subdued.
Related terms: mortification