“Mutilating” means causing very serious damage to a body or object so that it is badly injured, disfigured, or spoiled.

Quick Scoop: What does “mutilating” mean?

Core meaning

  • To mutilate someone usually means hurting their body so badly that a part is cut off, torn, or permanently disfigured.
  • It can also mean damaging an object so much that it loses its original form or beauty (for example, mutilating a painting or a document).

In short, “mutilating” = severely damaging, often in a brutal or permanent way.

Simple examples

  • A serious car accident that leaves someone’s arm permanently disfigured can be described as the arm being mutilated.
  • Slashing a famous painting with a knife would be “mutilating” the artwork.
  • In law, destroying or severely altering official records or passports can be described as mutilating those documents.

Important note (content warning)

The word is usually used in violent or very serious situations, especially in crime reports, war, or horror stories, so it often carries a strong and disturbing tone. If you’re seeing this word in news or online discussions, it usually signals something severe, not a minor injury.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.