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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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
  1. crippling
  2. incapacitating
  3. wounding
  4. injuring
  5. maiming
  6. disabling
  7. damaging
  8. killing
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
  • Some people with severe cases – with a high fever or incapacitating diarrhea that is bloody – may need to get care at a hospital.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 6 Aug. 2026
  • The driver hits Leatherface in the head with a wrench, incapacitating him long enough for the driver to run away and Sally to jump into the cab of a passing pickup truck.
    — Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 July 2026
Definition of incapacitating
Verb
  • The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon, seriously wounding three.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 16 Aug. 2026
  • An airstrike destroyed a house in Ansar town, killing seven people and wounding three others on Saturday morning, NNA said.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of wounding
Verb
  • The victim ran away screaming for help, injuring her leg during the ordeal, Smith said.
    — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026
  • In Gary, Superintendent Yvonne Stokes said damage to schools was minimal except for a tree at the West Side Leadership Academy which fell and crashed through window injuring an employee.
    — Carole Carlson, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of injuring
Verb
  • The fifth man, Raymond Foakes, was convicted of mayhem for allegedly maiming a former Hells Angels member, but his lawyers hope that this new hearing will undermine testimony from a crucial witness who helped bring about Foakes’ guilty verdict.
    — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Even in 2026, the category’s identity is anchored in infamous scenes of maiming, torture, and cathartic bloodshed.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 22 July 2026
Definition of maiming
Verb
  • Its 2026 defense drills include disabling the internet to test civil resilience and practicing drone warfare strategies inspired by Ukraine.
    — Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor, 11 Aug. 2026
  • This is a mass disabling event, concentrated in working-age people and skewed female, behaving exactly as post-viral illness always has.
    — Keely Cat-Wells, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of disabling
Verb
  • Williamson said protection of county waterways is a major pillar of his campaign, highlighting the dangers of chemical sprays meant to control plants that end up damaging the ecosystem.
    — James Wilkins, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The systems moving in could potentially bring severe weather, large hail, damaging winds and flooding, said NWS Indy meteorologist Matthew Eckhoff.
    — Jen Guadarrama, IndyStar, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 16 Aug. 2026
  • Thompson’s killing outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel ignited a multistate manhunt that ended five days later, when police in Altoona, Pennsylvania, arrested Mangione in a McDonald’s.
    — Kara Scannell, CNN Money, 15 Aug. 2026
Definition of killing

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mutilates
mutilating
mutilation
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Cite this Entry

“Mutilating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mutilating. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on mutilating

Nglish: Translation of mutilating for Spanish Speakers

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