mortification

From Middle French mortification, from Old French, from Latin mortificatio.

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

mortification (countable and uncountable, plural mortifications)

1. The act of mortifying.
2. A sensation of extreme shame or embarrassment.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; for, even after she had conquered her love for the Celebrity, the mortification of having been jilted by him remained.

3. (medicine) The death of part of the body.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 5

     And then there's the fever and the mortification—if it took bad ways he'd quickly be gone.

4. (law, Scotland) A bequest to a charitable institution.

• (a sensation of extreme shame): shame, humiliation

• (a sensation of extreme shame): honor, exaltation