FromAnglo-Normanmortifier,Middle Frenchmortifier, fromLate Latinmortificō(“cause death”), fromLatinmors(“death”) +-ficō(“-fy”).
mortify (third-person singular simple presentmortifies,present participlemortifying,simple past and past participlemortified)
- (transitive) Todiscipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practiseabstinence on.[from 15th c.]
- Synonym:macerate
Some people seek sainthood bymortifying the body.
1767,Walter Harte,Eulogius: Or, The Charitable Mason:With fastingmortify'd, worn out with tears.
- (transitive, usually used passively) Toinjure thedignity of; toembarrass; tohumiliate.[from 17th c.]
- Synonyms:demean,humiliate,shame
- Antonyms:dignify,honor
I was somortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.
1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter V, inThe 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 moremortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
- (obsolete, transitive) Tokill.[14th–17th c.]
- Synonyms:dispose of,terminate;see alsoThesaurus:kill
1664,John Evelyn, “Of the Mulberry”, inSylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber; republished asSylva: Or A Discourse of Forest Trees, volume 1, London: Arthur Doubleday,1908,page205: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 frostmortifie any part, cut it off [...]
- (obsolete, transitive) To reduce thepotency of; tonullify; todeaden,neutralize.[14th–18th c.]
- Synonyms:abate,cancel out,diminish,weaken
c.1400,Geoffrey Chaucer,The Persones Tale; republished asThe Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford: Clarendon Press,1900,page580:Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been almortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.
1627 (indicated as1626),Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, inSylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […];[p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […],→OCLC:Quicksilver ismortified 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 makenecrotic.[15th–18th c.]
- Synonyms:fester,necrotize,rankle,rot,sphacelate
1603,Michel de Montaigne, chapter 3, inJohn Florio, transl.,The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes forEdward Blount […],→OCLC:Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison tomortifie[translatingtuer] his legs.
- (obsolete, transitive) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.
- Synonyms:disturb,perturb;see alsoThesaurus: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 exceedinglymortified our expectations
1712 January 4 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison;Richard Steeleet al.], “MONDAY, December 24, 1711”, inThe Spectator, number257; republished inAlexander 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 inmortmain.
- 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 millsmortified by Queen Mary
- (intransitive) To losevitality.
- Synonyms:darken,die,fade,wither
1768,Richard Steele, “Act III. Scene I.”, inThe Funeral: or, Grief à-la-Mode. A Comedy, Edinburgh: Martin & Wotherspoon,page47:[...] 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, hermortify that us'd to kill [...]
- (intransitive) Togangrene.
- Synonyms:fester,putrefy
1627,Francis Bacon, “Century IX”, inSylva Sylvarum, or Natural History; republished asThe works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England, volume 2, Philadelphia: A. Hart,1852,page123: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 willmortify 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 besubdued.
- Synonyms:abate,diminish,quell,subside,wane
1900,Robert Louis Stevenson,A Christmas Sermon[1]:Trying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; amortified 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.
to discipline by suppressing desires
