noun

• (by extension) One who sacrifices their life, station, or something of great personal value, for the sake of principle or to sustain a cause.
• (with a prepositional phrase of cause) One who suffers greatly and/or constantly, even involuntarily.
  "Stan is a martyr to arthritis, Chris a martyr to Stan's endless moaning about it."
• (derogatory) Someone who exaggerate their pain and suffering in order to gain sympathy.
  "You have a great life! Stop trying to play the martyr!"

verb

• (transitive) To make someone into a martyr by putting them to death for adhering to, or acting in accordance with, some belief, especially religious; to sacrifice on account of faith or profession.
  "Fr. Felipe Císcar Puig was a Valencian priest who is also also considered a martyr of the sacramental seal because he was martyred after keeping confessions secret during the religious persecution of the Spanish Civil War."
• (transitive) To persecute.
  "Some religious and other minorities were martyred until extinction."
• (transitive) To torment; to torture.
  "Hark, wretches, how I mean to martyr you. This one hand yet is left to cut your throats, Whiles that Lavinia ’tween her stumps doth hold The basin that receives your guilty blood."