mutilation

Deliberate bodily damage

Mutilation is severe damage to a body, typically involving the removal or destruction of a limb or other essential part.

The word applies to deliberate acts—ritual mutilation, self-mutilation—and to violence that leaves someone disfigured: The victim's body showed signs of mutilation.

Extended uses describe ruinous damage to non-living things: the mutilation of a manuscript by censors.

bodily

dismemberment

Removal of limbs

maimInflict disabling wound
severCut apart completely
lacerationTorn, ragged wound

gash · disfigurement · wound · scarring · trauma · castration · blinding · scalping · flaying · excision

torture

branding

Creating distinctive identity

crushingOverwhelming in intensity
burningCombustion in progress
beatingRepeated striking or pulsing

flaying · castration · blinding · scalping · strangling · choking · starvation · thumbscrew · rack · waterboarding

censorship

redaction

Obscuring sensitive text

expurgationRemoval of offensive content
bowdlerizationSanitizing offensive literary content
excisionCutting out of tissue

suppression · sanitization · defacement · vandalism · alteration · deletion · removal · tampering · corruption · distortion

disfigurement

scar

Permanent mark from healing

defaceDamage a surface's appearance
marSpoil the appearance
distortTwist from original form

deform · blemish · mangle · disfiguration · carve · hack · slash · butcher · savage · shred

ritual

scarification

Intentional shallow skin cuts

circumcisionForeskin surgical removal
tattooingInjecting pigment under skin
brandingCreating distinctive identity

piercing · cutting · bloodletting · initiation · tribal · ceremonial · traditional · cultural · genital

mutilation

dismemberment

branding

redaction

scar

scarification

mutilation

Opposites

Phrases

Categories

Family