Mu·ti·late v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mutilated p. pr. & vb. n. Mutilating ]
 1. To cut off or remove a limb or essential part of; to maim; to cripple; to disfigure; to hack; as, to mutilate the body, a statue, etc.
 2. To destroy or remove a material part of, so as to render imperfect; as, to mutilate the orations of Cicero.
    Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho.   --Addison.
 Mutilated gear, Mutilated wheel Mach., a gear wheel from a portion of whose periphery the cogs are omitted. It is used for giving intermittent movements.

 ◄ ►


 mutilated
      adj 1: badly injured, perhaps with amputation; "the maimed right
             hand twisted and clutched"- P.B.Kyne; "mutilated
             victims of the rocket attack" [syn: maimed]
      2: having a part of the body crippled or disabled [syn: maimed]
      3: (of compositions e.g.) damaged; "a mutilated text" [syn: mangled]