mortification

noun

mor·​ti·​fi·​ca·​tion ˌmȯr-tə-fə-ˈkā-shən 

1

a

: a sense of humiliation and shame caused by something that wounds one's pride or self-respect

the mortification of being jilted by a little boarding-school girl

—Washington Irving

b

: the cause of such humiliation or shame

2

: necrosis, gangrene

3

: the subjection and denial of bodily passions and appetites by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort

was customary to practice mortification during Lent

Synonyms

• abashment
• confusion
• discomfiture
• disconcertment
• embarrassment
• fluster

Examples of mortification in a Sentence

the mortification of being dumped the night before the prom

Recent Examples on the Web

Soundscapes of the Silenced In late Renaissance Florence one in five women lived behind institutional walls whose rule was sensory mortification. —Erin Maglaque, The New York Review of Books, 15 Nov. 2024

Sylvie saves everyone from further mortification by picking up the check. —Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2024

What Ventura alleges is more harrowing than anything in the years of cavalier gossip-page and forum rumors about the pair: grievous harm and mortification even as Diddy made bubbly late-night and daytime television appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. —Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 17 Apr. 2024

Your book is dealing with that too, this mortification of the flesh and Matrix-y refusal to engage with the body, denying the kids are going to find ways to make out in the bushes. —Hazlitt, 3 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Phrases Containing mortification

• self-mortification

Medical Definition

mortification

noun

mor·​ti·​fi·​ca·​tion ˌmȯrt-ə-fə-ˈkā-shən 

: local death of tissue in the animal body : necrosis, gangrene