Adjacent Words

Mortify definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MOR'TIFY, v.t. [L. mors, death, and facio, to make.]
1. To destroy the organic texture and vital functions of some part of a living animal; to change to sphacelus or gangrene. Extreme inflammation speedily mortifies flesh.
2. To subdue or bring into subjection, as the bodily appetites by abstinence or rigorous severities.
We mortify ourselves with fish.
With fasting mortified, worn out with tears.
3. To subdue; to abase; to humble; to reduce; to restrain; as inordinate passions.
Mortify thy learned lust.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Colossians 3.
4. To humble; to depress; to affect with slight vexation.
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.
He is controlled by a nod, mortified by a frown, and transported with a smile.
5. To destroy active powers or essential qualities.
He mortified pearls in vinegar--
Quicksilver--mortified with turpentine.
[I believe this application is not now in use.]
MOR'TIFY, v.i. To lose vital heat and action and suffer the dissolution of organic texture, as flesh; to corrupt or gangrene.
1. To be subdued.
2. To practice severities and penance from religious motives.
This makes him give alms of all that he hath, watch, fast and mortify.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: practice self-denial of one's body and appetites
2: hold within limits and control; "subdue one's appetites"; "mortify the flesh" [syn: mortify, subdue, crucify]
3: cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of; "He humiliated his colleague by criticising him in front of the boss" [syn: humiliate, mortify, chagrin, humble, abase]
4: undergo necrosis; "the tissue around the wound necrosed" [syn: necrose, gangrene, mortify, sphacelate]

Merriam Webster's

verb (-fied; -fying) Etymology: Middle English mortifien, from Anglo-French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificare, from Latin mort-, mors Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. obsolete to destroy the strength, vitality, or functioning of 2. to subdue or deaden (as the body or bodily appetites) especially by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort 3. to subject to severe and vexing embarrassment ; shame intransitive verb 1. to practice mortification 2. to become necrotic or gangrenous

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. (-ies, -ied) 1 tr. a cause (a person) to feel shamed or humiliated. b wound (a person's feelings). 2 tr. bring (the body, the flesh, the passions, etc.) into subjection by self-denial or discipline. 3 intr. (of flesh) be affected by gangrene or necrosis. Derivatives: mortification n. mortifying adj. mortifyingly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF mortifier f. eccl.L mortificare kill, subdue f. mors mortis death

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mortify Mor"ti*fy, v. i. 1. To lose vitality and organic structure, as flesh of a living body; to gangrene. 2. To practice penance from religious motives; to deaden desires by religious discipline. This makes him . . . give alms of all that he hath, watch, fast, and mortify. --Law. 3. To be subdued; to decay, as appetites, desires, etc.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mortify Mor"ti*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mortified; p. pr. & vb. n. Mortifying.] [OE. mortifien, F. mortifier, fr. L. mortificare; L. mors, mortis, death + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See Mortal, and -fy.] 1. To destroy the organic texture and vital functions of; to produce gangrene in. 2. To destroy the active powers or essential qualities of; to change by chemical action. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine. --Bacon. He mortified pearls in vinegar. --Hakewill. 3. To deaden by religious or other discipline, as the carnal affections, bodily appetites, or worldly desires; to bring into subjection; to abase; to humble. With fasting mortified, worn out with tears. --Harte. Mortify thy learned lust. --Prior. Mortify, rherefore, your members which are upon the earth. --Col. iii. 5. 4. To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress. The news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations. --Evelyn. 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! --Addison.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(mortifies, mortifying, mortified) If you say that something mortifies you, you mean that it offends or embarrasses you a great deal. Jane mortified her family by leaving her husband. VERB: no cont, V n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mor'-ti-fi (Ro 8:13 the King James Version and the English Revised Version, thanatoo, the English Revised Version margin "make to die," and Col 3:5, nekroo, the English Revised Version margin "make dead"): This sense of mortify is obsolete in modern English, and the American Standard Revised Version in both places substitutes "put to death," with great advantage. The context in both passages goes to the heart of Paul's doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ. This union has given the soul a new life, flowing (through the Spirit) from Christ in the heavenly world, so that the remnants of the old corrupt life-principle are now dangerous excrescences. Hence, they are to be destroyed, just as a surgeon removes the remnants of a diseased condition after the reestablishment of healthy circulation. The interpreter must guard against weakening Paul's language into some such phrase as "subdue all that is inconsistent with the highest ideals," for Paul views the union with Christ as an intensely real, quasi-physical relation.

Burton Scott Easton

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Gangrene. 2. Disappoint, dissatisfy, displease, vex, harass, plague, worry, disquiet, chagrin, annoy, trouble, humble, depress. 3. Humiliate, humble, shame, confound, abase, abash, put down, restrain, subdue. II. v. n. Gangrene, lose vitality, corrupt, putrefy, fester.

Moby Thesaurus

abash, break up, bring down, canker, cast down, castigate, chagrin, chasten, confound, confuse, control, corrupt, crumble, crumble into dust, crush, decay, decompose, deflate, degrade, discipline, discomfit, discompose, disconcert, disgrace, disintegrate, disturb, downgrade, embarrass, fall into decay, fall to pieces, fester, gangrene, go bad, go to pieces, humble, humiliate, let down, mildew, mold, molder, necrose, punish, put down, put out, put to shame, putrefy, putresce, rankle, rebuff, reduce, rot, shame, sphacelate, spoil, subdue, subjugate, suppress, suppurate, throw into confusion, upset