mortify

verb

1. (transitive)To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.

   “Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.”

   “With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears.”

   “Mortify thy learned lust.”

   “Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.”

2. (transitive, usually)To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.

   “I was so mortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again.”

   “Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.”

3. (obsolete, transitive)To kill.

   “The second Spring after transplanting, purge them of all superfluous shoots and scions, reserving only the most towardly for the future stem; this to be done yearly, as long as they continue in the nursery; and if of the principal stem so left, the frost mortifie any part, cut it off [...]”

4. (obsolete, transitive)To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.

   “Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.”

   “Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine.”

   “He […]mortified them [pearls] in vineger aud drunke them vp”

5. (transitive)To affect with vexation or chagrin.

   “He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital.”

   “22 September 1651 (date in diary), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, John Evelyn's Diary the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations”

   “How often is [the ambitious man] mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought!”

6. (transitive)To scare.

   “Near-synonym: petrify”

   “Please don't mortify your mother by telling her what a stupidly dangerous thing you did last night.”

7. (obsolete, transitive)To humble; to depress.
8. (historical, transitive)To grant in mortmain.

   “the schoolmasters of Ayr were paid out of the mills mortified by Queen Mary”

9. (intransitive)To lose vitality.

   “[...] Tis a pure ill-natur'd ſatisfaction to ſee one that was a beauty unfortunately move with the ſame languor, and ſoftneſs of behaviour, that once was charming in her—To ſee, I ſay, her mortify that us'd to kill [...]”

10. (archaic, transitive)To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.

    “Servius the Grammarian being troubled with the gowt, found no better meanes to be rid of it, than to apply poison to mortifie [translating tuer] his legs.”

11. (archaic, intransitive)To gangrene.

    “For the inducing of putrefaction, it were good to try it with flesh or fish exposed to the moonbeams; and again exposed to the air when the moon shineth not, for the like time: to see whether will corrupt sooner: and try it also with capon, or some other fowl, laid abroad, to see whether it will mortify and become tender sooner; try it also with dead flies, or dead worms, having a little water cast upon them, to see whether will putrefy sooner.”

12. (intransitive)To be subdued.

    “Trying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; a mortified appetite is never a wise companion; in so far as he has had to mortify an appetite, he will still be the worse man; and of such an one a great deal of cheerfulness will be required in judging life, and a great deal of humility in judging others.”