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
  • Florida didn’t have the cap space to work out the shorter term deal without crippling its ability to make other moves this offseason to enhance the roster.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 3 July 2026
  • Eddie Marsan also delivers a sympathetic turn as the sad sack dad worn down by the effects of capitalism and sometimes crippling OCD.
    — Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 26 June 2026
Definition of crippling
Verb
  • 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
  • Tabitha grabs one of the weird, spooky totem things and drives it through the chest of the scarecrow monster attacking Donna, killing it – or at least incapacitating it – and the scarecrows retreat.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 17 May 2026
Definition of incapacitating
Verb
  • Moscow seeks to capitalize on this shortage with ballistic missile strikes in early July killing dozens of Ukrainian civilians including children, and wounding hundreds more.
    — Ihor N. Stelmach, Hartford Courant, 19 July 2026
  • In neighboring Iraq, a base of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, an Iranian Kurdish dissident group, near Irbil was struck by a drone early Sunday, wounding eight of its members, according to Rebaz Sharifi, a military official with the group.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 19 July 2026
Definition of wounding
Verb
  • On November 17, tanks smashed through the gates, injuring and killing students.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 July 2026
  • Russia has carried out a wave of ballistic missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.
    — Anniek Bao,Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 20 July 2026
Definition of injuring
Verb
  • All of the 200 children and adolescents initially qualified for the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder; after the group’s fifth session, with war still killing and maiming their friends, only 30% qualified.
    — James Gordon, Time, 14 July 2026
  • She was later transported to the Clark County Juvenile Hall and charged with 12 counts of willful or malicious killing, maiming or torturing an animal and three counts of felony malicious destruction of private property valued at more than $5,000, police said.
    — Julia Bonavita, FOXNews.com, 1 June 2026
Definition of maiming
Verb
  • Every improvement in surveillance capability encourages new methods of avoidance, whether through disabling tracking devices, manipulating vessel identities, or exploiting gaps between different monitoring systems.
    — IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 16 July 2026
  • Not content to wait for local officials to strike down ALPR contracts, concerned citizens are taking matters into their own hands by disabling or cutting down Flock camera towers wherever they’re found.
    — Joe Wilkins, Futurism, 16 July 2026
Definition of disabling
Verb
  • Rodriguez pleaded guilty to damaging property occupied by a foreign government, explosive materials—malicious damage to federal property, and receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 16 July 2026
  • Conventional launch vehicles secure their payloads inside protective fairings that fall away from the rocket completely once damaging aerodynamic forces disappear in the vacuum of space.
    — Josh Dinner, Space.com, 15 July 2026
Definition of damaging
Verb
  • The king successfully fought a hundred men and emerged victorious, but not before killing Antinous in Sinon’s name.
    — Tanya Fedak, Variety, 18 July 2026
  • He was convicted of killing his former girlfriend’s parents four decades ago in Pasco County.
    — Jim Turner, Sun Sentinel, 18 July 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 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on mutilating

Nglish: Translation of mutilating for Spanish Speakers

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