mutilate

Definitions

1. 1.(Zoöl.) Having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.
2. 2.A cetacean, or a sirenian.
3. 3.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.
4. 4.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.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

• What does "mutilate" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is mutilate.

• What is having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean called?
• What is 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 called?