mortifier
(ˈmɔːtɪfaɪə(r))
[f. mortify v. + -er1.]
One who or that which mortifies. † a. One who practises mortification; an ascetic (obs.). b. One who or a thing which causes mortification (in various senses). c. Scots Law (see mortify v. 5).
| a. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. Disc. ii. 76 The Sarabaites..were stricter mortifiers than the religious in families and Colledges. 1756 W. Dodd Fasting (ed. 2) 9 The daily fast of great mortifiers. |
| b. 1658 Pitman & Batt Truth Vind. 5 None can know him a Justifier, but they who know him a Sanctifier and a Mortifier. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 450 ¶6 The Love of Business and Money is the greatest Mortifier of inordinate Desires imaginable. 1801 Lamb John Woodvil iii, I want..Some strokes of the old mortifier Calamity, To take these swellings down. 1841 Hor. Smith Moneyed Man III. iv. 104 How sweet it is when a fallen man can thus mortify his intended mortifiers! |
| c. 1655 in Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 38/2 Quhich by the will of the mortifiers comes not to be payable untill [etc.]. 1820 J. Cleland Rise & Progr. Glasgow 222 A preference is to be given to the mortifier's relatives. |