Definition of mortify

< mortification

Mortimer, Roger de. >

mor·ti·fy    (môrt-f) KEY 

VERB:
mor·ti·fied, mor·ti·fy·ing, mor·ti·fies
VERB:
tr.

1. To cause to experience shame, humiliation, or wounded pride; humiliate.
2. To discipline (one's body and physical appetites) by self-denial or self-inflicted privation.

VERB:
intr.

1. To practice ascetic discipline or self-denial of the body and its appetites.
2. Pathology To undergo mortification; become gangrenous or necrosed.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English mortifien, to deaden, subdue, from Old French mortifier, from Latin mortificre, to kill : mors, mort-, death; see mer- in Indo-European roots + -ficre, -fy