mortify means to discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 70 out of 100.
mortify is pronounced /ˈmɔːtɪfaɪ/.
Why “mortify” is a great word
To cause someone to feel an intense, often paralyzing, sense of shame, humiliation, or embarrassment. From Anglo-Norman and Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō ("cause death"), from Latin mors ("death") + -ficō ("-fy, make"). Unlike "humiliate," which typically involves a public loss of dignity, or "embarrass," which suggests a milder, fleeting discomfort, to mortify is to inflict a wound upon the self, an internal death by a thousand social cuts. It is the hot flush that climbs the neck when a private joke is overheard, the stomach's lurch upon realizing a glaring error in a published work, the silent wish for the earth to swallow you whole after an earnest gesture is met with cold stares—a small but palpable extinguishing of the spirit.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman mortifier, Middle French mortifier, from Late Latin mortificō (“cause death”), from Latin mors (“death”) + -ficō (“-fy”).
verb
- To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.“Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body.”
- To injure the dignity of; to embarrass; to humiliate.“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.”
- To kill.“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 [...]”
- To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.“Soothly, the gode werkes, that he dide biforn that he fil in sinne, been al mortified and astoned and dulled by the ofte sinning.”
- To affect with vexation or chagrin.“He seemed to enjoy mortifying them with news of every fresh hell loosed in the capital.”
- To scare.“Near-synonym: petrify”