Kate Garraway

Once, when I was about eight, my mum handed me a sandwich, and I remarked: 'What are those weird things on your hands?' I was referring to the visible pores, which were such a contrast to my own alabaster-smooth skin. My mum looked mortified, while my grandma laughed and said: 'They're nothing - look at mine!

English Journalist

Jacob Batalon

Growing up, I wanted to be a musician. My mother, in typical Filipino-mom fashion, would always make me go up in front of people at parties to sing. Back then, as a kid, I was mortified. In retrospect, I see that doing that as a child helped me get over my fear of being in front of people.

Filipino Actor

John Waters

I grew up in Baltimore, which is, you know, a city of extremes certainly, but my parents were very conservative. But they made me feel safe, and even though they were mortified at what I was doing, they encouraged it. I think because they thought, what else could I do?

Director

Michaela Watkins

My rule of thumb is to always do what's on the page first. Then you can talk to your director about playing with it. Improv frees me up in a character, but I would be mortified if the writers who agonized over their words assumed I thought my improv was more valuable.

American Actress

Amy Hill

I was mortified by my parents - what they did, who they were, everything. I hated who I was. I hated everything, and I would live in a fantasy world and try to be different. But that's not a lot different, I think, than a lot of kids.

American Comedian

Thomas Jefferson

I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.

American President

Sami Gayle

I have never gotten a B in my life. I would honestly be mortified if I got a B. I'm so academically driven.

Logan Pearsall Smith

What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?

American Writer

Billy Bob Thornton

I've danced one time in my life. It was the most mortifying experience I ever had.

American Actor

Robert Louis Stevenson

It is one thing to mortify curiosity, another to conquer it.

Scottish Writer

Mortify suggests a deep sense of shame, often publicly witnessed.

Emotional Impact

Mortify indicates a stronger feeling than just 'embarrassed' or 'awkward'.

Intensity

To mortify often involves others witnessing the event leading to humiliation.

Involvement

Understand 'mortify' in a religious context refers to historical practices.

Historical Context

Mortify can be used metaphorically in modern language to mean self-discipline.

Metaphorical Use

Mortify in this sense implies an intense, often painful act of self-denial.

Intensity of Practice

 so he dragged me out of the group. There were a lot of girls there as well, so I was utterly mortified. None of my explanations or excuses were heard, and I really got it big time. If he was an ideal teacher, he would have responded like I said before, "Young-ha may not have a talent for drawing,

Young-ha Kim: Be an...

 have things to hide. There are all sorts of things that we do and think that we're willing to tell our physician or our lawyer or our psychologist or our spouse or our best friend that we would be mortified for the rest of the world to learn. We make judgments every single day

Glenn Greenwald: Why...

 the poor teenager who filmed himself with a golf ball retriever, acting as if it were a light saber. The film, without his permission or even knowledge at first, found its way onto the Internet. Hugely viral video. Extremely popular. Totally mortifying to him.

Jonathan Zittrain: The...

 And I was so humiliated and mortified that I immediately ran home to my mother and chastised her for ever letting me wear the hideous sweater. We drove to the Goodwill and we threw the sweater away somewhat ceremoniously,

Jacqueline Novogratz:...

 The room froze. Silence. Jenny and Rosie's mom was not too far away. She was in the kitchen and she overheard the conversation, and she was mortified. She said, "Rosie! You can't ask people questions like that."

Cheyenne Cochrane: A...

 I came out of my leg. Like, I almost came out of it, in front of, like, 5,000 people. And I, I mean, was just mortified -- because I was signed up for the 200, you know, which went off in a half hour.

Aimee Mullins: Changing...

 For the past eight months, the mysterious content of these tapes has hung like the sword of Damocles over my head. I mean, who can remember what they said a year ago? Scared and mortified, I listen,

The price of shame PIPE...

 When Cope's mentor sided with Marsh, Cope was mortified. He tried to buy and destroy every copy of the article containing his blunder, but to no avail. Their mutual resentment blossomed.

The most notorious...

 Think about it. Poetry, right? I am utterly mortified by my music choices. I firmly believe in man work, which is anything I don't want to do, including --

Roxane Gay: Confessions...

 I apologize profusely and I ask them to stand guard outside my cubicle door. They do and I emerge grateful but absolutely mortified,