MORTIFYING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mortifying

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

verb

Mortify v. t. (past & past part. mortified; pres. part. mortifying)

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.) "Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine." "He mortified pearls in vinegar."

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; as, to mortify the flesh. "With fasting mortified, worn out with tears." "Mortify thy learned lust." "Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth."

4.

To affect with vexation, chagrin; to depress. "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!"

5.

To humiliate deeply, especially by injuring the pride of; to embarrass painfully; to humble; as, the team was mortified to lose by 45 to 0.

Mortify 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."

3.

To be subdued; to decay, as appetites, desires, etc.

adjective

Mortifying adj.

1.

Tending to mortify; affected by, or having symptoms of, mortification; as, a mortifying wound; mortifying flesh.

2.

Subduing the appetites, desires, etc.; as, mortifying penances.

3.

Tending to humble or abase; humiliating; as, a mortifying repulse.

See images of 'Mortifying'

Etymology of 'Mortifying'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Mortifying" Quotes from Famous Books

... menial office for my brothers and sisters, who were encouraged to order me about. I had very good clothes, which had been provided me by my grandmother; they were all taken away, and altered for my younger sisters; but what was still more mortifying, all my sisters had lessons in music, dancing, and other accomplishments, from various masters, whose instructions I was not permitted to take advantage of, although there would have been no addition ...

— Valerie • Frederick Marryat

... affected to the monarchy; that, in general, I conceived this to be a mistake,—but if it were not, the rejection of a bill in favor of others, because something in favor of them was inserted, instead of humbling and mortifying, would infinitely exalt them: for, if the legislature had no means of favoring those whom they meant to favor, as long as the Dissenters could find means to get themselves included, this would make them, instead of their only being subject to restraint themselves, the arbitrators ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... St. Bartholomew by avowing the Catholic faith. When he escaped from the Catholic court and returned to his mother's Protestant court in Navarre, he espoused with new vigor the cause of his Protestant friends. These changes were of course more or less mortifying, and they certainly indicated a total want of religious conviction. He now promised carefully to look at the arguments on both sides of the question, and to choose deliberately that which should seem to him right. This arrangement, ...

— Henry IV, Makers of History • John S. C. Abbott

... posts. Made sensible in many ways of the aggravation of British feelings toward the new republic, whose condition immediately after the peace was somewhat embarrassing, and not so flattering as it might have been to the advocates and promoters of the revolution, the situation of Adams was rather mortifying than agreeable. ...

— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis

... to those near him, wandering painfully in his subjects. The exercise and the change soon produced an exhaustion that caused them to remove him to his bed, where he lay for hours, evidently sensible of the change in his comforts, and exhibiting that mortifying picture of human nature, which too plainly shows that the propensities of the animal continue even after the nobler part of the ...

— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper

Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org