mortify

present singular third person mortifies · participle present mortifying · participle past mortified · past mortified

1. transitiveTo discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.First known use 15th c.

   Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.

   3 more examples

   With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears.

   1767, Walter Harte, Eulogius: Or, The Charitable Mason

   Mortify thy learned lust.

   1688, Matthew Prior, An Ode

   Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Colossians 3:5

   Synonyms: macerate

2. transitiveusuallyTo injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.First known use 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.

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   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.

   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

3. obsoletetransitiveTo kill.First known use 14th–17th c.

   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 [...]

   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: dispose of, terminate, annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down

4. obsoletetransitiveTo reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.First known use 14th–18th c.

   Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.

   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

   2 more examples

   Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.

   c. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Persones Tale; republished as The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900, page 580

   He […]mortified them [pearls] in vineger aud drunke them vp

   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

5. transitiveTo affect with vexation or chagrin.

   He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital.

   2 more examples

   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

   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!

   1712 January 3 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SUNDAY, 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: disturb, perturb, agitate, freak, sting, bother, bring down, discompose

6. transitiveTo scare.

   Near-synonym: petrify

   1 more example

   Please don't mortify your mother by telling her what a stupidly dangerous thing you did last night.

   Synonyms: frighten, alarm, affright, appall, dismay, fray, frighten, grill

7. obsoletetransitiveTo humble; to depress.
8. historicaltransitiveScots lawTo grant in mortmain.

   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)

9. intransitiveTo lose vitality.

   [...] 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 [...]

   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

10. archaictransitiveTo kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.First known use 15th–18th c.

    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.

    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

11. archaicintransitiveTo gangrene.

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    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.

    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

12. intransitiveTo be subdued.

    1 more example

    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.

    1900, Robert Louis Stevenson, A Christmas Sermon

    Synonyms: abate, diminish, quell, subside, wane