Category:Mutilate

Mu"ti*late, a. Etym: [L. mutilatus, p.p. of mutilare to mutilate, fr. mutilus maimed; cf. Gr. Mutton.]

1. Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated. Sir T. Browne.

2. (Zoöl.)

Defn: Having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.

mutilate Mu"ti*late, n. (Zoöl.)

Defn: A cetacean, or a sirenian.

mutilate Mu"ti*late, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mutilated; p. pr. & vb. n. Mutilating.]

1. To cut off or remove a limb or essential part of; to maim; to cripple; to hack; as, to mutilate the body, a statue, etc.

2. To destroy or remove a material part of, so as to render imperfect; as, to mutilate the orations of Cicero. Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho. Addison. Mutilated gear, Mutilated wheel (Mach.), a gear wheel from a portion of whose periphery the cogs are omitted. It is used for giving intermittent movements.