Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MU-TI-LA'TION, n. [L. mutilatio.]

1. The act of mutilating; deprivation of a limb or of an essential part.
2. Mutilation is a term of very general import, applied to bodies, to statues, to buildings and to writings; but appropriately, it denotes the retrenchment of a human limb or member, and particularly of the male organs of generation.