Definition

Noun: 1. An injury that causes disfigurement or the loss of a limb or other important body part: The act or result of severely damaging a body, often by cutting off or destroying a part, leading to permanent impairment or a ruined appearance. 2. The act of damaging something severely, ruining its completeness or appearance: Used figuratively to describe the act of spoiling something so that its original form or function is lost.

Usage and Examples

• Literal (Physical Injury):
  • The accident resulted in the mutilation of his hand. (The accident caused a severe, disfiguring injury to his hand.)
  • The treaty prohibited the mutilation of prisoners of war. (The treaty forbade the act of injuring prisoners by cutting off body parts.)
• Figurative (Damaging Completeness):
  • The censors' heavy editing was a mutilation of the artist's original film. (The censors' edits severely damaged and ruined the original form of the film.)
  • Vandals committed mutilation on the ancient statue. (Vandals severely damaged the statue, spoiling its appearance.)

Advanced Usage

• "Self-mutilation": The act of intentionally injuring or cutting one's own body, often as a symptom of psychological distress.
  • The clinic specializes in treating patients with a history of self-mutilation.
• Used in legal and human rights contexts to describe a grave violation of bodily integrity.

Variants and Related Words

• Mutilate (verb): To inflict mutilation upon; to damage severely.
  • The machine could mutilate a worker's arm.
• Mutilated (adjective): Describing something that has been severely damaged or disfigured.
  • They found the mutilated remains of the document.

Synonyms

• Disfigurement: Spoiling the appearance of something.
• Amputation: The surgical removal of a limb (a specific type of mutilation).
• Maiming: Causing an injury that cripples or disables.
• Dismemberment: The act of cutting or tearing off the limbs of.

Antonyms

• Restoration: The act of returning something to its original condition.
• Preservation: The act of keeping something safe from injury or decay.
• Healing: The process of becoming sound or healthy again.

Related Phrases and Idioms

• "A mutilated text": A text that has been altered so much that its original meaning is lost or obscured.
  • Scholars worked to reconstruct the story from the mutilated text.
• While not a phrasal verb, the concept is often linked with verbs like "to cut off," "to tear apart," or "to deface."

Noun

1. an injury that causes disfigurement or that deprives you of a limb or other important body part