mortified
part of speech
adjective (mortified); verb past form of «mortify» (mortify, mortifies, mortified, mortifying)
meaning for a pupil
1) Mortified means extremely embarrassed or ashamed. tree →
2) (verb) To mortify someone is to make them feel very embarrassed. tree →
3) (church, old) To mortify the body was to make it suffer on purpose as a religious practice, for example by fasting. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and stories, mortified is a strong feeling word, much stronger than «embarrassed»: falling over on stage, or when your dad dances at the school disco. In church history, some Christians practised «mortification» to grow in self-control. Common phrases: «absolutely mortified», «I was mortified», «mortifying moment».
examples
- I was mortified when my trousers split in assembly. tree →
- Mum was mortified that she had forgotten my birthday party. tree →
- He felt mortified after calling the teacher «Mum». tree →
- It was mortifying to trip up the stairs in front of everyone. tree →
- She was absolutely mortified when her phone rang during the play. tree →
- My sister was mortified by Dad's dancing. tree →
- Pinocchio, mortified at being taken for a crab, said resentfully: tree →
note
Used mostly as an adjective after «be» or «feel». The «-ing» form «mortifying» describes the situation. It comes from Latin «mors» (death) — as if you could «die of embarrassment».
In the corpora
- A teacher moves them along, and Kieran is mortified all day.
- Liam-Jay is mortified, which means so embarrassed he wants to vanish.
- Mortified means extremely embarrassed; "cringe" is slang for that squirming feeling.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mortified» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.