from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Mutilate \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.
[1913 Webster]
2. To destroy or remove a material part of, so as to render
imperfect; as, to mutilate the orations of Cicero.
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Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is
none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of
Sappho. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
{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.
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