MEANING
1. To make someone feel intense embarrassment or wounded pride.
2. To suppress bodily appetites or desires through self-denial or ascetic practice.
3. To die or cause to die, referring to bodily tissue.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- mortify a speaker
- mortified by an error
On the page
The mistaken introduction mortified him before he had spoken.
She was mortified to discover that the letter had been read aloud.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- mortify
- Past tense
- mortified
- Past participle
- mortified
- Present participle
- mortifying
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- mortify
- Present continuous
- am/is/are mortifying
- Present perfect
- have/has mortified
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been mortifying
- Past
- mortified
- Past continuous
- was/were mortifying
- Past perfect
- had mortified
- Past perfect continuous
- had been mortifying
- Future
- will mortify
- Future continuous
- will be mortifying
- Future perfect
- will have mortified
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been mortifying
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: literary. Forms: mortify; mortifies; mortified; mortified; mortifying Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: mortifies.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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