maim

[ meym ]

verb (used with object)

1. to deprive of the use of some part of the body by wounding or the like; cripple:

   The explosion maimed him for life.

2. to impair; make essentially defective:

   The essay was maimed by deletion of important paragraphs.

   Synonyms: mar, deface, disable, injure

noun

, Obsolete.

1. a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
2. an injury or defect; blemish; lack.

maim

/ meɪm; ˈmeɪmɪdnɪs /

verb

1. to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)
2. to make defective

noun

1. obsolete.
   an injury or defect

Derived Forms

• ˈmaimer, noun
• maimedness, noun

Other Words From

• maim·er noun
• re·maim verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem

Word History and Origins

Origin of maim¹

C14: from Old French mahaignier to wound, probably of Germanic origin

Synonym Study

Maim, lacerate, mangle, mutilate indicate the infliction of painful and severe injuries on the body. To maim is to injure by giving a disabling wound, or by depriving a person of one or more members or their use: maimed in an accident. To lacerate is to inflict severe cuts and tears on the flesh or skin: to lacerate an arm. To mangle is to chop undiscriminatingly or to crush or rend by blows or pressure, as if by machinery: bodies mangled in a train wreck. To mutilate is to injure the completeness or beauty of a body, especially by cutting off an important member: to mutilate a statue, a tree, a person.

Example Sentences

“They have no concept of a free sky, because everything in the sky is trying to kill them. It’s either trying to track them, to surveil them, to maim them, to target them, to kill them, whether it’s these quadcopters, whether it’s the drones, whether it’s the fighter jets.”

From Salon

Police said the knives and machetes were designed to "kill and maim".

From BBC

"If you look at the design... the purpose is to kill and maim."

From BBC

You could barely maim even one enemy at a time with it!

From Literature

But the rubber bullets can be deadly themselves, as well as maim and cause permanent disability.

From Slate

Related Words

• disable
• disfigure
• dismember
• hack
• harm
• impair
• incapacitate
• injure
• mangle
• maul
• mutilate
• wound