verb (mortifies, mortifying, mortified) with object

1. cause (someone) to feel embarrassed, ashamed, or humiliated:

〈人〉に恥をかかせる, 屈辱を感じさせる(→ 分詞mortified)

e.g. she was mortified to see her wrinkles in the mirror.

2. subdue (the body or its needs and desires) by self-denial or discipline:

｟文｠ (苦行などで)〈肉体〉を苦しめる, 〈自身〉を抑制する, 〈情欲〉を克服する

e.g. return to heaven by mortifying the flesh.

3. no object (of flesh) be affected by gangrene or necrosis:

〘医〙 壊疽にかかる

e.g. the cut in Henry's arm had mortified.

late Middle English (in the senses ‘put to death’, ‘deaden’, and ‘subdue by self-denial’): from Old French mortifier, from ecclesiastical Latin mortificare ‘kill, subdue’, from mors, mort- ‘death’.