crucify

crucify
    v 1: kill by nailing onto a cross; "Jesus Christ was crucified"
    2: treat cruelly; "The children tormented the stuttering
       teacher" [syn: {torment}, {rag}, {bedevil}, {crucify}, {dun},
       {frustrate}]
    3: hold within limits and control; "subdue one's appetites";
       "mortify the flesh" [syn: {mortify}, {subdue}, {crucify}]
    4: criticize harshly or violently; "The press savaged the new
       President"; "The critics crucified the author for
       plagiarizing a famous passage" [syn: {savage}, {blast},
       {pillory}, {crucify}]
    

Crucify \Cru"ci*fy\ (-f?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crucified}
   (-f?d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Crucifying}.] [F. crucifier, fr.
   (assumed) LL. crucificare, for crucifigere, fr, L. crux,
   crucis, cross + figere to fix, the ending -figere being
   changed to -ficare, F. -fier (in compounds), as if fr. L.
   facere to do, make. See {Cross}, and {Fix}, and cf.
   {Crucifix}.]
   1. To fasten to a cross; to put to death by nailing the hands
      and feet to a cross or gibbet.
      [1913 Webster]

            They cried, saying, Crucify him, cricify him. --Luke
                                                  xxiii. 21.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To destroy the power or ruling influence of; to subdue
      completely; to mortify.
      [1913 Webster]

            They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh,
            with the affections and lusts.        --Gal. v. 24.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To vex or torment. --Beau. & FL.
      [1913 Webster]
    

122 Moby Thesaurus words for "crucify":
      abuse, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, ail, bedevil, befoul, behead,
      bewitch, bite, blight, bloody, bother, bowstring, browbeat, burn,
      chafe, claw, condemn, convulse, corrupt, curse, cut, damage,
      decapitate, decollate, defenestrate, defile, deprave, despoil,
      destroy, disadvantage, disserve, distress, do a mischief, do evil,
      do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, electrocute, envenom,
      excruciate, execute, fester, fret, gall, garrote, get into trouble,
      give pain, gnaw, grate, grind, gripe, guillotine, harass, harm,
      harrow, hex, hurt, impair, impale, infect, inflame,
      inflict capital punishment, inflict pain, injure, irritate, jinx,
      kill by inches, lacerate, lancinate, lapidate, macerate, maltreat,
      martyr, martyrize, menace, mistreat, molest, nip, outrage, pain,
      persecute, pierce, pinch, play havoc with, play hob with, poison,
      pollute, prejudice, prick, prolong the agony, punish, put to death,
      put to torture, rack, rankle, rasp, rip, rub, savage, scarify,
      scathe, shoot, smite, stab, sting, stone, strangle, taint,
      threaten, torment, torture, try, tweak, twist, violate, wound,
      wreak havoc on, wring, wrong