mortify

In a sequence that would mortify anyone averse to audience participation, he gently beseeches a handful of patrons to stand with their hands up and foreheads against the wall, like a row of perpetrators.

From New York Times ● Feb. 12, 2024

That it seems a choice at all is what should mortify us.

From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024

A few years after I sent the quarterback the audio recording, a friend who lived in his dorm told me that he’d played it aloud for his buddies in an effort to mortify me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2024

“Don’t take advantage of your own position and role to mortify the other.”

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2022

“What’s the point of being old if you can’t mortify the young? Well, I’ll leave you two in peace. Good day, young lady. It was a real pleasure.”

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Yet even as the siblings lose their sophistication and their self-control to a degree that mortifies their loved ones, Mr. Kolker sees more than tragedy in his subjects’ second selves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

It said the spread of English "demeans and mortifies" Italian and proposed that all public and private bodies had to use the language of Dante to promote their goods and services.

From Reuters ● Mar. 31, 2023

Being stalked by an invisible enemy surely mortifies those with an obsessive-compulsive fear of germs, and deepens the distress of many who have experienced waves of uncontrollable anxiety before the epidemic.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2020

“I know not which mortifies me most,” he wrote, “that I should fear to write what I think, or my country bear such a state of things.”

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2018

I ought to have read more, for I find I don’t know anything, and it mortifies me.

From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

Rolincik was assigned a slow French ballad and was mortified when the instructor said she was doing too much.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

“I’m mortified to say, however, I fell hard for this one.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

If I was mortified just to breathe, how could I even think about loving another man?

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

One of the women described to the jury how she had "froze" after the incident while the other said she had been "mortified".

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

At first she was mortified, but the longer they rode, the angrier she became.

From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson

And then enough time passed that it began to feel slightly mortifying to say, “Hi, I realize I should have introduced myself years ago, but here I am!”

From Salon ● Jan. 27, 2026

Little did I know this would turn out to be equal parts amazing and mortifying.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025

On this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode of Amicus, co-hosts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern discussed the DOJ’s rather mortifying confession and its implications for the broader battle over Trump’s federalization of the Guard.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2025

Listening to the European golfers plead with fans to not chuck beers at a colleague’s spouse was mortifying.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025

“Irene Blythe says she witnessed you and Russell in a . . .” The words died in her mouth, apparently too mortifying to say aloud.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu