View synonyms for

maim

[ meym ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used with object)

to deprive of the use of some part of the body by wounding or the like; cripple:
The explosion maimed him for life.
to impair; make essentially defective:
The essay was maimed by deletion of important paragraphs.
Synonyms: , , ,

noun

Obsolete.

a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
an injury or defect; blemish; lack.

maim

/ meɪm; ˈmeɪmɪdnɪs /

verb

to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)
to make defective

noun

obsolete.
an injury or defect

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Derived Forms

ˈ��, noun
maimedness, noun

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Other Word Forms

��·�� noun
��·�� verb (used with object)

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Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem

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Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

C14: from Old French mahaignier to wound, probably of Germanic origin

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Synonym Study

Maim, lacerate, mangle, mutilate indicate the infliction of painful and severe injuries on the body. To maim is to injure by giving a disabling wound, or by depriving a person of one or more members or their use: maimed in an accident. To lacerate is to inflict severe cuts and tears on the flesh or skin: to lacerate an arm. To mangle is to chop undiscriminatingly or to crush or rend by blows or pressure, as if by machinery: bodies mangled in a train wreck. To mutilate is to injure the completeness or beauty of a body, especially by cutting off an important member: to mutilate a statue, a tree, a person.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

My unfortunate niche is innocent Americans who were mistreated, maimed, or killed in the name of elastic, expansive, nebulous, and incendiary words like “terrorists,” “insider threats,” “enemies within,” “illegals,” and “traitors.”

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I love this quote by Ntozake Shange: “i cant count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that i was taught to hate myself in.”

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But when this colossal chess game ends with the Mistress of Mayhem maiming her adversary, “The Art of Personal Chaos” transitions into something even more extraordinary.

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He shared with me another picture, of his maimed hand, only now it also bore a tattooed message which expressed that his wounds were a cheap sacrifice in honour of Nasrallah, the late Hezbollah leader.

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Unicef said "relentless and indiscriminate bombardments" had resumed in Gaza, with 100 children killed or maimed every day in the 10 days to 31 March.

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Related Words

mailshot mai mai

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