fac-, facil-, fact-, feas-, -feat, -fect, -feit, -facient, -faction, -fic-, -fy, -ficate, -fication

Someone who, or that which, mortifies; or the practice of ascetic self-discipline.

1. To decay and to die: The flesh on Jim's leg had mortified because it was affected by necrosis after his terrible accident.
2. To make someone feel ashamed and humiliated either on purpose or by accident: After Tom went to the barber shop and got his hair died green, he mortified his mother when he went to visit her at work!
3. To use self-imposed discipline, hardship, abstinence from pleasure: Self-inflicted pain is used to mortify an attempt to control or to put an end to one's desires and passions; especially, for religious purposes. © ALL rights are reserved.

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In a mortifying manner or the subjugation of the body, passions, etc., with abstinence, ascetic discipline, or self-inflicted suffering.

1. Magnanimity; a giving, or a liberality in bestowing presents: To practice munificence, the act of conferring something must be free and proceed because of generous motives.
2. Etymology: from Middle French munificence, from Latin munificentia, from stem of munificus, "generous, bountiful, liberal"; literally, "present-making", from munus, muneris, "gift" or "service, duty, office" + the stem of facere, "to do". © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
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1. Very generous in giving a lot of money.
2. Characterized by generosity.

1. In a generous manner.
2. Liberally; generously.

Relating to the process of developing or producing a nest: The nidificant persistence of the two birds in finding the right materials and the assembling of their breeding place was observed and photographed by Monroe from the window of his workroom.

The nidificant habit of the sparrows seem to be to return to the previous year's habitation and repair it in time for the new breeding season.

1. To create a nest for breeding and habitation: The birds were nidificating a residence in a tree just outside Tom's bedroom window.

Some spiders nidificate underground in order to protect their lodgings.

Some birds make a more or less extensive use of saliva as a cement in order to nidificate mud dwellings; such as, swallows, South American oven birds, and flamingos.

The use of salivary glands to nidificate their nesting places is done generally by swifts which glue small twigs to the inside of a chimney to form a tiny basket; or, as in the case of the Asiatic edible swifts, they just use saliva without twigs or anything else. Such places are harvested early in the nest-building season and used by some Chinese when they make "bird's nest soup".

2. Etymology: from Latin nidificare, "to make into a nest". © ALL rights are reserved.

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The phrase "for the birds" also means something that is "worthless", "useless", or "undesirable".

1. The preparation or construction of nests and the behavior connected with it: Although many mockingbirds and insects build their nests in trees, several animal species practice nidification and burrow or dig holes in the ground for their dens.

The term nidification is used in zoology and involves all the preparations for the reception of eggs or newborn animals and for their care.

Smaller species of birds provide more elaborate nidifications; such as, the abodes in hedgerows or bushes, or even on the ground where bowl-shaped structures are made of fine grass that is interwoven with horsehairs and moss or lichen so the refuges are not easy to see.

The thrushes use a foundation of clay and line the insides of their domiciles with a mixture of decayed wood and cow dung.

2. Etymology: from Latin nidus, "nest" + facere, "to make".

To build or to construct a nest or nests: Gerda was using her binoculars to watch a pair of sparrows nidifing in the branches of a nearby tree.