maim
maim /meɪm/
verb [transitive]
Landmines still kill or maim about 300 people every month.
■ to injure yourself or someone else
▪hurt to damage part of your body, or someone else’s body: She slipped on the ice and hurt herself badly. | Be careful you don’t hurt anyone with that knife.
▪injure to hurt yourself quite severely, or to be hurt in an accident or fighting: One of our players has injured his leg, and will be out of the game for weeks. | Four people have been seriously injured on the Arizona highway.
▪wound to deliberately hurt someone using a weapon such as a knife or gun: The gunmen shot and killed twelve people and wounded three others.
▪maim /meɪm/ [usually passive] to hurt someone very severely, especially so that they lose an arm, leg etc, often as the result of an explosion: In countries where there are landmines, people are killed and maimed daily.
▪break to hurt a part of your body by breaking a bone in it: The X-ray showed that I had broken my wrist.
▪bruise to hurt a part of your body when you fall on it or hit it, causing a dark mark to appear on your skin: Cathy fell off her bike and bruised her legs badly.
▪sprain/twist to hurt your knee, wrist, shoulder etc by suddenly twisting it while you are moving: I jumped down from the wall and landed awkwardly, spraining my ankle.
▪strain/pull to hurt one of your muscles by stretching it or using it too much: When you are lifting heavy loads, be careful not to strain a back muscle.
▪dislocate to damage a joint in your body in a way that moves the two parts of the joint out of their normal position: Our best batsman dislocated his shoulder during training.
▪paralyse [usually passive] to make someone lose the ability to move part or all of their body: A climbing accident had left him paralysed from the chest down.
maim /meɪm/
verb [transitive] Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: maynier
to wound or injure someone very seriously and often permanently:Language: Old French
Origin: maynier
| THESAURUS |
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪