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

Other Word Forms

• maimer noun
• remaim verb (used with object)
• maimedness noun

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

According to Human Rights Watch, Russian forces have deliberately targeted civilians in the city with FPV drones and killed or maimed them - a war crime.

From BBC

In another instance, a bear maimed the hand of a man living in the Chantry Flat area of the Angeles National Forest.

From Los Angeles Times

During this century, in the Middle East, the U.S.-Israel duo has vastly outdone all other entities combined in the categories of killing, maiming and terrorizing.

From Salon

In “The Air as Air,” Sidney, a vet maimed in Iraq, belongs to a recovery movement focused on breath.

From Los Angeles Times

Though Spike gets a few solid practice kills in on the slow-moving undead, his nerves get the best of him when it comes to the Alphas, wasting arrows that do little more than maim.

From Salon

Related Words

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