Word.ws English Dictionary

maim

UK/meɪm/

maim verb: to wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.

Verb

maim (third-person singular simple present maims, present participle maiming, simple past and past participle maimed)

  1. To wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.
    • He was maimed by a bear.
    • Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
    Synonyms:
    mutilate

Noun

maim (plural maims)

  1. (obsolete) A severe, serious wound.
    • it ſequeſtred me from the woonted meanes of my maintenance, which is as great a maime to any mans happineſſe as can bee feared from the hands of miſerie, or the deepe pit of diſpaire wherinto I was falne, beyond my greateſt friendes reach to recouer mee1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 1

maim meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

maim in Tamil

சிதை, முடமாக்கு ஊனமாக்கு, வன்செயலால் ஊனமுறல், வன்செயலால் முடமையுறல்

maim in Urdu

لنگڑا پن, معذور بنانا, مسخ کرنا

maim in Bengali

পঙ্গু করা, অঙ্গহানি করা, জখম করা

maim in Malayalam

മുറിവ്, അംഗവൈകല്യം, മുടന്ത്
More languagesFewer languages
maim in Kannada
ಅಂಗವಿಕಲಗೊಳಿಸು, ಅಪಾಯಕ್ಕೆ ಈಡುಮಾಡು, ಅಂಗಹೀನ ಮಾಡು, ಊನಗೊಳಿಸು
maim in Arabic
شَوِهَ šawiha, بَتَرَ batara

Examples of maim in a sentence

  • But we have fought until maimed soldiers, women, and children are all that remain to run.
  • The slaves were subject to punishment of maiming and unlimbing for insignificant faults.
  • To deprive a gregarious creature of companionship is to maim it, to outrage its nature.

All 12 example sentences with maim

Synonyms of maim

Forms of maim

Verb
third-person singular presentmaims
present participlemaiming
past participlemaimed
pastmaimed
Noun
pluralmaims

Past tense of maim: maimed

Origin of maim

From Middle English maymen, mahaymen, from Anglo-Norman maheimer, mahaigner, of Germanic origin; see mayhem.

Words formed from maim

Words that rhyme with maim

37 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about maim

What does maim mean?
Maim means to wound seriously; to cause permanent loss of function of a limb or part of the body.
What is maim in Tamil?
Maim in Tamil is சிதை, முடமாக்கு ஊனமாக்கு, வன்செயலால் ஊனமுறல். See Maim meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is maim?
Maim can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce maim?
Maim is pronounced /meɪm/ (UK).
What is the past tense of maim?
The past tense of maim is maimed.

Words near maim in the dictionary

  1. mailvan
  2. mailvans
  3. mailwoman
  4. mailwomen
  5. maily
  6. maim
  7. Maimacterion
  8. Maimakterion
  9. Maimbung
  10. maime
  11. maimed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maim (page history and authors); maim (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maim (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Maim (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maim (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); maim (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-maim.ogg.

Cite this entry: “maim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.