As applied to written documents, such as wills, court records, and the like, this term means rendering the. document imperfect by the subtraction from it of some essential part, as, by cutting, tear ing, burning, or erasure, but without totally destroying it. See Woodfill v. Patton, 76 Ind. 583, 40 Am. Rep. 269. In criminal law. The depriving a man of the use of any of those limbs which may be useful to him in fight, the loss of which amounts to mayhem. 1 Bl. Comm. 130.