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. (Zoöl.) Having finlike
appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean.
Mu"ti*late, n. (Zoöl.)
A cetacean, or a sirenian.
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.
