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 disfigure; 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.
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