maim
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
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a physical injury, especially a loss of a limb.
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an injury or defect; blemish; lack.
verb
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to mutilate, cripple, or disable a part of the body of (a person or animal)
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to make defective
noun
Synonym Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has maimedperfect 3rd person singular
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have maimedperfect
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have been maimingperfect progressive
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is maimingprogressive 3rd person singular
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am maimingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been maimingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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maimssingular 3rd person
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are maimingprogressive
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maimingparticiple
Past
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had maimedperfect
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were maimingprogressive plural
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was maimingprogressive singular
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had been maimingperfect progressive
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maimedsimple
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maimedparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of maim
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mayme, variant of mahayme mayhem
Explanation
To maim something is to disfigure it through force or violence. Wartime battles have a tendency to maim soldiers. The verb maim is related to mayhem, which, historically, was the act of hurting another person so badly that they couldn’t defend themselves. To maim a person or animal, even if it’s an accident, is to render them defenseless or disfigured, and it frequently includes the loss of a limb. The goal of driving defensively is to avoid an accident that could maim you, your passengers, or other people on the road.
Vocabulary lists containing maim
A Long Way Gone
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"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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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.
One legacy we don’t hear anything about in Turning Point is how the war continues to kill, maim, and sicken the Vietnamese people.
From Slate • Apr. 30, 2025
Only the owner of a carrier or racing pigeon can injure, kill, maim, trap or detain their bird.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 21, 2023
In severe cases, he said, offenders can be required to plant two trees for every one they maim.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 22, 2023
They can kill or maim trees, leaving scarring that allows an entry point for other tree pests and diseases which can stunt their growth.
From BBC • Jul. 10, 2022
Now this is the method of the Revising body throughout: viz. so seriously to maim the Text of many a familiar passage of Holy Writ as effectually to mar it.
From The Revision Revised by Burgon, John William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
