MUTILATING Synonyms: 80 Similar and Opposite Words

mutilating

verb

present participle of mutilate

as in crippling

to cause severe or permanent injury to was lucky not to be mutilated in the car crash

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of mutilating Guess which mowing league isn't mutilating hedgehogs? — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 12 June 2026 Tony Lee Hughes, 38, of the 600 block of Camelot Manor, is charged with Level 6 felonies of killing a domestic animal and mutilating a vertebrate animal. — Jim Woods, Chicago Tribune, 8 June 2026 Apparently, their definition of resistance is to gang rape as many women and men of all ages as possible before torturing, mutilating and murdering them. — Bobby Zirkin, Baltimore Sun, 14 May 2026 Nearly a year after her death, Burke was arrested and charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, lewd and lascivious acts with an individual under 14 and mutilating a body. — Austin Turner, CBS News, 29 Apr. 2026 D4vd pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body in connection with Rivas Hernandez’s death. — Jessica Schaldebeck, New York Daily News, 21 Apr. 2026 Burke is formally charged with murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a body. — ABC News, 20 Apr. 2026 The strikes have also ripped through the historic palaces my father proudly showed me as a child, mutilating Iran’s ancient cultural heritage. — Alex Shams, Time, 14 Mar. 2026 Nationwide, the first successful prosecution happened in 2016 when a Houston man was sentenced to five years for creating videos that featured a woman mutilating and killing puppies, chickens and kittens and distributing them on the internet. — Jay Weaver, The Orlando Sentinel, 3 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for mutilating

Verb

And the high pay they’re being offered as a lure is crippling the economy.

— The Week UK, TheWeek, 15 Aug. 2026
Trump claims the United States has opened the strait to all commercial ships other than those from Iran, crippling Iran's economy because of its reliance on oil exports.

— Joey Garrison, USA Today, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of crippling

Verb

The video shows the Taser not incapacitating her and the woman walking quickly toward the officers while waving the knives in front of her.

— ABC News, ABC News, 31 Aug. 2026
All that before disorienting and incapacitating a potential school shooter in about a minute.

— Cindy Von Quednow, CNN Money, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of incapacitating

Verb

Hunter Nadeau, the man accused of killing one person and wounding several others in a shooting at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, New Hampshire last year, plans to use an insanity defense.

— Matt Schooley, CBS News, 17 Sep. 2026
The attacks struck two Ukrnafta gas stations, killing two people and wounding six at one of them, the prosecutor's office said.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 12 Sep. 2026

Definition of wounding

Verb

The pilots of an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 were blamed for crashing into a seawall in 2013, sending their jet cartwheeling down a runway in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring 187 others.

— Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 14 Sep. 2026
The jet, traveling from San Juan, Puerto Rico, overshot the runway, killing five people and injuring another five.

— Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of injuring

Verb

That’s how this season starts, and Reacher’s methods of maiming and/or killing only get more elaborate.

— Bethy Squires, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
Its entire loop revolved around strategic mechanical dismemberment, a concept perfected all the way back in Ninja Gaiden 2, where maiming enemies directly fed into brutal instant finishers.

— Gabriel Zamora, PC Magazine, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of maiming

Verb

On directions from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), Miami-Dade County is disabling Flock cameras on the agency's infrastructure.

— Sarah Perkel, USA Today, 2 Sep. 2026
Users reported problems with Outlook, while OpenAI said users may experience problems starting or continuing tasks in ChatGPT Work, temporarily disabling two of the modern office's favorite methods of assigning more work.

— Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of disabling

Verb

You can often get prequalified to get a sense of the rate and term a lender is likely to approve you for, without damaging your credit score.

— Dan Avery,Brett Holzhauer, CNBC, 17 Sep. 2026
Zelensky said that a passenger train was also struck in the Mykolaiv region on Wednesday, damaging a railway station and a diesel locomotive.

— Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of damaging

Verb

Investigators determined that Hollander had likely targeted the home with the intention of killing Esther.

— Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 5 Sep. 2026
The jury could not reach a verdict in the murder trial of the Massachusetts mother who admitted to killing her three children.

— Violet Jira, Washington Post, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of killing

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mutilates

mutilating

mutilation

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“Mutilating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mutilating. Accessed 20 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of mutilating

verb

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