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mutilate

[myoot-l-ayt] / ˈmjut lˌeɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Prosecutors accuse the former president of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence,” and of inducing another person to do so.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2023

“We have concluded on the basis of present evidence that Nosenko was dispatched to the West to mutilate counterintelligence leads which had been revealed by Golitsyn,” Angleton said.

From Washington Times ● Jan. 1, 2023

"They've actually forced the cane toad to get rid of the toxin itself, they haven't had to mutilate it in any way. The cane toad is doing all the work for them."

From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2022

It would stiffen the maximum penalties for people who willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate or alter such records from $1,000 and one year in prison to $10,000 and two years in prison.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2022

I don’t know, I guess I always thought I’d turn out okay, no matter how badly my many schools tried to mutilate me.

From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi

The law punishes “whoever corruptly alters, destroys, mutilates or conceals a record, document or other object … or otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding.”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2022

There was no camaraderie because this system mutilates your emotions - you feel nothing.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2017

Especially if the Common App mutilates the formatting on applicant essays and you say there’s no way to fix it.

From Slate ● Nov. 25, 2013

Editors, he predicted, would reject the concept “because it mutilates the magazine.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 1, 2010

He not always hated because he mutilates humanity so much, as because his spectacular graft in surgery is sure to be taken as proof conclusive that he is superior in all other departments of therapeutics.

From Quacks and Grafters by Unknown

She now says she feels "mutilated" by what happened to her, and feels the mistakes made by the trust were "absolutely unforgivable".

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Mr. Hemming writes that upon Miller’s death, doctors found 23 battle scars, a large wound on his right abdominal cartilage, two rifle balls lodged in his liver, and mutilated fingers on his left hand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Our glamorous and gruesome history is all there in a close-up of “Chinatown’s” Jack Nicholson: a movie star with a mutilated nose.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

They can cause dangerous diseases like Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida auris among our own kind, massacre beloved fellow animals like frogs and bats and even turn less-charismatic animals like cicadas into horrifyingly mutilated zombies.

From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2024

On his hand rested the mutilated spider, but with its snipped-off legs restored.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

Conservationists say they hate mutilating these anmals, whose magnificent horns are integral to their being.

From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2025

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has warned, however, against "mutilating" the project in a letter to Rishi Sunak.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2023

I’ve heard countless stories from friends of the anxiety that comes from mutilating a piece of clothing, hoping that the finished product doesn’t look atrocious.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2023

Both testicles were eventually removed – he called it “the mutilating surgery”.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2020

Four of the men went to prison for six months for knowingly destroying or mutilating their cards.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge




Vocabulary lists containing mutilate


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