mortify

1. (transitive) To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.Examples: "Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body."; "With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears."; "Mortify thy learned lust."Synonyms: maceratetransitive

2. (transitive, usually used passively) To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.Examples: "I was so mortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again."; "Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better."Synonyms: demean, humiliate, shameAntonyms: dignify, honortransitiveusually

3. (obsolete, transitive) To kill.Examples: "The second Spring after transplanting, purge them of all superfluous shoots and scions, reserving only the most towardly for the future stem; this to be done yearly, as long as they continue in the nursery; and if of the principal stem so left, the frost mortifie any part, cut it off [...]"Synonyms: dispose of, terminate, annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring downobsoletetransitive

4. (obsolete, transitive) To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.Examples: "Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning."; "Quicksilver is mortified with turpentine."; "He […]mortified them [pearls] in vineger aud drunke them vp"Synonyms: abate, cancel out, diminish, weakenobsoletetransitive

5. (transitive) To affect with vexation or chagrin.Examples: "He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital."; "22 September 1651 (date in diary), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, John Evelyn's Diary the news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations"; "How often is [the ambitious man] mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought!"Synonyms: disturb, perturb, agitate, freak, bother, bring down, discompose, disconcerttransitive

6. (transitive) To scare.Examples: "Near-synonym: petrify"; "Please don't mortify your mother by telling her what a stupidly dangerous thing you did last night."Synonyms: frighten, alarm, affright, appall, dismay, fray, frighten, grilltransitive