mar·tyr·dom

(mär′tər-dəm)

a. The state of being a martyr.

b. The suffering of death by a martyr.

2. Extreme suffering of any kind.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

martyrdom

(ˈmɑːtədəm)

1. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the sufferings or death of a martyr

2. great suffering or torment

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mar•tyr•dom

(ˈmɑr tər dəm)

n.

1. the condition, sufferings, or death of a martyr.

2. extreme suffering; torment.

[before 900]

martyrdom

1. the condition of being a martyr.
2. the death or type of suffering of a particular martyr.
3. any arduous suffering or torment.

martyrdom

noun persecution, suffering, torture, agony, ordeal, torment, anguish the martyrdom of Bishop Cannio
joy, happiness, ecstasy, bliss

Quotations
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it" [Oscar Wilde Sebastian Melmoth]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

إسْتِشْهاد، عَذاب، شَهيد

mučednictví

martyrdødmartyrium

Martyrium

martyr

vértanúság

píslarvætti

martirio

martyrdød martyrium

mučeníctvo

ıstırap çekmeşehitlik

殉道殉难牺牲

martyrdom

[ˈmɑːtədəm] N → martirio m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

martyrdom

[ˈmɑː^rtə^rdəm] n → martyre m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

martyrdom

n (= suffering) → Martyrium nt; (= death) → Märtyrertod m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

martyrdom

[ˈmɑːtədəm] n → martirio

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

martyr

(ˈmaːtə) noun

1. a person who suffers death or hardship for what he or she believes. St Joan is said to have been a martyr.

2. a person who continually suffers from a disease, difficulty etc. She is a martyr to rheumatism.

verb

to put (someone) to death or cause (him) to suffer greatly for his beliefs. Saint Joan was martyred by the English.

ˈmartyrdom noun

the suffering or death of a martyr.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Martyrdom is the luckiest fate that can befall some people.

View in context

Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on the life of Saint Theresa, has not smiled with some gentleness at the thought of the little girl walking forth one morning hand-in-hand with her still smaller brother, to go and seek martyrdom in the country of the Moors?

View in context

We inquired, and learned that the lions of Smyrna consisted of the ruins of the ancient citadel, whose broken and prodigious battlements frown upon the city from a lofty hill just in the edge of the town--the Mount Pagus of Scripture, they call it; the site of that one of the Seven Apocalyptic Churches of Asia which was located here in the first century of the Christian era; and the grave and the place of martyrdom of the venerable Polycarp, who suffered in Smyrna for his religion some eighteen hundred years ago.

View in context

Only a woman who had been accustomed to suffer, who had been broken and disciplined to self-restraint, could have endured the moral martyrdom inflicted on her as this woman endured it, from the beginning of the evening to the end.

View in context

de Thou, and other slovenly executed people, that the headsman might inflict more than one stroke, that is to say, more than one martyrdom, on the poor tulip-fancier.

View in context

She rose, and in rising, looked for the first time towards the little room in which my martyrdom was going on.

View in context

It is part of the martyrdom which I endure for the cause of the Truth that there are seasons of mental weakness, when Cubes and Spheres flit away into the background of scarce-possible existences; when the Land of Three Dimensions seems almost as visionary as the Land of One or None; nay, when even this hard wall that bars me from my freedom, these very tablets on which I am writing, and all the substantial realities of Flatland itself, appear no better than the offspring of a diseased imagination, or the baseless fabric of a dream.

View in context

Pfuel was one of those hopelessly and immutably self-confident men, self-confident to the point of martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self-confident on the basis of an abstract notion- science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth.

View in context

Aunt Jane six months later mitigated this martyrdom by making her a ruffled dimity pinafore, artfully shaped to conceal all the spots.

View in context

On this occasion she refused one dish after another with a resolution which implied the rarest of all modern martyrdoms -- gastric martyrdom.

View in context

"Listen," said Morcerf -- "if Mademoiselle Danglars were disposed to take pity on my supposed martyrdom on her account, and would dispense with all matrimonial formalities between our two families, I am ready to agree to the arrangement.

View in context

"The enemies of a great and good man can in no other way make him so glorious as by giving him the crown of martyrdom."

View in context

Noun	1.	martyrdom - death that is imposed because of the person's adherence of a religious faith or cause death, decease, expiry - the event of dying or departure from life; "her death came as a terrible shock"; "upon your decease the capital will pass to your grandchildren"
	2.	martyrdom - any experience that causes intense suffering calvary affliction - a cause of great suffering and distress