Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAIM, n. [Written in law-language, Mayhem.]

1. The privation of the use of a limb or member of the body, so as to render the sufferer less able to defend himself or to annoy his adversary.
2. The privation of any necessary part; a crippling. Surely there is more cause to fear lest the want thereof be a maim, than the use of it a blemish. Hooker.
3. Injury; mischief. Shak.
4. Essential defect. A noble author esteems it to be a maim in history. [Not used.] Hayward.