martyr

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One who chooses to suffer death rather than renounce religious principles.
2. n. One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle.
3. n. One who endures great suffering: a martyr to arthritis.
4. n. One who makes a great show of suffering in order to arouse sympathy.
5. v. To make a martyr of, especially to put to death for devotion to religious beliefs.
6. v. To inflict great pain on; torment.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Originally, a witness; one who bears testimony to his faith. [Thus the grandsons of Judas, accused before Domitian, and released unscathed, were always regarded as martyrs.]
2. n. One who willingly suffers death rather than surrender his religious faith; one who bears witness to the sincerity of his faith by submitting to death in asserting it; specifically, one of those Christians who in former times were put to death because they would not renounce their religious belief: as, Stephen was the first martyr (called the protomartyr); the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
3. n. One who suffers death or grievous loss in defense or on behalf of any belief or cause, or in consequence of supporting it: as, he died a martyr to his political principles or to his devotion to science.
4. n. Hence One who suffers greatly from any cause; one who is afflicted; a victim of misfortune, calamity, or disease: as, a martyr to gout, or to tight lacing.
5. n. [⟨ martyr, v.] An old instrument of torture in which the victim was subjected to agonizing pressure.
6. n. In wine-making, a wooden box used for pressing grapes.
7. To put to death as a punishment for adherence to some religious belief, especially for adherence to Christianity; hence, to put to death for the maintaining of any obnoxious belief or cause.
8. To put to death for any cause; destroy, as in revenge or retaliation; torture.
9. To persecute as a martyr; afflict; despoil; torment.

Wiktionary

1. n. One who willingly accepts being put to death for adhering openly to one's religious beliefs; notably, saints canonized after martyrdom.
2. n. by extension One who sacrifices his or her life, station, or what is of great value to him or her, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.
3. n. One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.
4. v. transitive To make someone into a martyr by putting him or her to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
5. v. transitive To persecute.
6. v. transitive To torment; to torture.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who, by his death, bears witness to the truth of the gospel; one who is put to death for his religion.
2. n. Hence, one who sacrifices his life, his station, or what is of great value to him, for the sake of principle, or to sustain a cause.
3. v. To put to death for adhering to some belief, esp. Christianity; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
4. v. To persecute; to torment; to torture.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. one who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty for refusing to renounce their religion
2. v. kill as a martyr
3. v. torture and torment like a martyr
4. n. one who suffers for the sake of principle