mutilation
/ˌmjuːt(ɪ)ˈleɪʃn
/noun [mass noun]
1The action of mutilating or being mutilated: a culture which found any mutilation of the body abhorrent [count noun]: there were fatalities and appalling mutilations...
- Scientists from a foreign power could be involved, performing the mutilations for analysis.
- Mutilation was used throughout medieval and early-modern Europe to inscribe punishment publicly upon the body.
- Their reasoning is that some local societies follow practices that violate human rights, such as female genital mutilation and other violations of the right against gender discrimination.
Synonyms
maiming, disfigurement, dismembering;
damage, vandalization, desecration
1.1The infliction of serious damage on something: the proposed mutilation of City Hall by our own councillors...
- The initial authors of a report may often object to the mutilation of their manuscript.
- He was indignant about the mutilation of the cable and wanted to make a complaint about it right away.
- As this passage indicates, the white supremacist denial of black success effects a symbolic decapitation, or, more properly, psychological mutilation.