Mu"tu*al (?), a. [F. mutuel, L. mutuus,
orig., exchanged, borrowed, lent; akin to mutare to change. See Mutable.]
1. Reciprocally acting or related; reciprocally
receiving and giving; reciprocally given and received; reciprocal;
interchanged; as, a mutual love, advantage, assistance,
aversion, etc.
Conspiracy and mutual promise.
Sir T. More. Happy in our
mutual help,
And mutual love.
Milton. A certain shyness on such subjects, which was mutual between the
sisters.
G. Eliot.
2. Possessed, experienced, or done by two or more persons or things at the
same time; common; joint; as, mutual happiness; a mutual effort. Burke.
A vast accession of misery and
woe from the mutual weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
Bentley. &fist; This use of mutual as synonymous with common is inconsistent with the idea of interchange, or reciprocal relation, which properly belongs to it; but the word has
been so used by many writers of high authority. The present tendency is toward a careful discrimination.
Mutual, as Johnson will tell us,
means something reciprocal, a giving and taking. How could people have mutual
ancestors?
P. Harrison.
Mutual insurance, agreement among a number of
persons to insure each other against loss, as by fire, death, or accident. -- Mutual
insurance company,
one which does a business of insurance on the mutual principle, the policy holders sharing losses and
profits pro rata.
Syn.
-- Reciprocal; interchanged; common.
Hear it pronounced