Mu"ti*late (?), a. [L. mutilatus, p.p. of mutilare to mutilate, fr. mutilus maimed; cf. Gr. , . Cf. Mutton.]
1.
Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.
Sir T. Browne.
2. Zool.
Having finlike appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.
© Webster 1913.
Mu"ti*late, n. Zool.
A cetacean, or a sirenian.
© Webster 1913.
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 hack; as, to mutilate the body, a statue, etc.
2.
To destroy or remove a material part of, so as to render imperfect; as, to mutilate the orations of Cicero.
Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho.
Addison.
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.
© Webster 1913.