Search Result for "murder": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being;
[syn: murder, slaying, execution]


VERB (2)

1. kill intentionally and with premeditation;
- Example: "The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered"
[syn: murder, slay, hit, dispatch, bump off, off, polish off, remove]

2. alter so as to make unrecognizable;
- Example: "The tourists murdered the French language"
[syn: mangle, mutilate, murder]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Murder \Mur"der\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Murdered (m[^u]r"d[~e]rd); p. pr. & vb. n. Murdering.] [OE. mortheren, murtheren, AS. myr[eth]rian; akin to OHG. murdiren, Goth. ma['u]r[thorn]rjan. See Murder, n.] 1. To kill with premediated malice; to kill (a human being) willfully, deliberately, and unlawfully. See Murder, n. [1913 Webster] 2. To destroy; to put an end to. [1913 Webster] [Canst thou] murder thy breath in middle of a word? --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. To mutilate, spoil, or deform, as if with malice or cruelty; to mangle; as, to murder the king's English. [1913 Webster] Syn: To kill; assassinate; slay. See Kill. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Murder \Mur"der\ (m[^u]r"d[~e]r), n. [OE. morder, morther, AS. mor[eth]or, fr. mor[eth] murder; akin to D. moord, OS. mor[eth], G., Dan., & Sw. mord, Icel. mor[eth], Goth. ma['u]r[thorn]r, OSlav. mr[=e]ti to die, Lith. mirti, W. marw dead, L. mors, mortis, death, mori, moriri, to die, Gr. broto`s (for mroto`s) mortal, 'a`mbrotos immortal, Skr. m[.r] to die, m[.r]ta death. [root]105. Cf. Amaranth, Ambrosia, Mortal.] The offense of killing a human being with malice prepense or aforethought, express or implied; intentional and unlawful homicide. "Mordre will out." --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] The killing of their children had, in the account of God, the guilt of murder, as the offering them to idols had the guilt of idolatry. --Locke. [1913 Webster] Slaughter grows murder when it goes too far. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] Note: Murder in the second degree, in most jurisdictions, is a malicious homicide committed without a specific intention to take life. --Wharton. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

murder n 1: unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being [syn: murder, slaying, execution] v 1: kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered" [syn: murder, slay, hit, dispatch, bump off, off, polish off, remove] 2: alter so as to make unrecognizable; "The tourists murdered the French language" [syn: mangle, mutilate, murder]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

110 Moby Thesaurus words for "murder": abate, abolish, annihilate, asphyxiate, assassinate, assassination, be all thumbs, behead, blood, bloodshed, bloody murder, blot out, blunder, blunder away, blunder into, blunder on, blunder upon, boggle, botch, bumble, bump off, bumping-off, bungle, butcher, butchery, carnage, commit a gaffe, cool, decapitate, decimation, destroy, do in, dust off, electrocute, eliminate, elimination, eradicate, eradication, execute, exterminate, extermination, extinguish, faux pas, finish, flounder, foul play, fratricide, fumble, garrote, genocide, get rid of, guillotine, hang, homicide, ice, infanticide, kill, killing, knock off, lay low, liquidate, liquidation, lumber, lynch, mangle, manslaughter, mar, massacre, matricide, miscue, muddle, muff, murdering, mutilate, parricide, patricide, play havoc with, polish off, purge, purging, put away, put down, put to death, regicide, removal, remove, root out, rub out, ruin, scrag, slaughter, slay, slaying, slip, smother, snuff out, sororicide, spoil, strangle, stumble, thuggee, thuggery, thuggism, trip, uproot, uxoricide, waste, wipe out, wiping out, wreck
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Murder Wilful murder was distinguished from accidental homicide, and was invariably visited with capital punishment (Num. 35:16, 18, 21, 31; Lev. 24:17). This law in its principle is founded on the fact of man's having been made in the likeness of God (Gen. 9:5, 6; John 8:44; 1 John 3:12, 15). The Mosiac law prohibited any compensation for murder or the reprieve of the murderer (Ex. 21:12, 14; Deut. 19:11, 13; 2 Sam. 17:25; 20:10). Two witnesses were required in any capital case (Num. 35:19-30; Deut. 17:6-12). If the murderer could not be discovered, the city nearest the scene of the murder was required to make expiation for the crime committed (Deut. 21:1-9). These offences also were to be punished with death, (1) striking a parent; (2) cursing a parent; (3) kidnapping (Ex. 21:15-17; Deut. 27:16).
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

MURDER, crim. law. This, one of the most important crimes that can be committed against individuals, has been variously defined. Hawkins defines it to be the willful killing of any subject whatever, with malice aforethought, whether the person slain shall be an Englishman or a foreigner. B. 1, c. 13, s. 3. Russell says, murder is the killing of any person under the king's peace, with malice prepense or aforethought, either express or implied by law. 1 Rus. Cr. 421. And Sir Edward Coke, 3 Inst. 47, defines or rather describes this offence to be, "when a person of sound mind and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature in being, and under the king's peace, with malice aforethought either express or implied." 2. This definition, which has been adopted by Blackstone, 4 Com. 195; Chitty, 2 Cr. Law, 724; and others, has been severely and perhaps justly criticised. What, it has been asked, are sound memory and understanding? What has soundness of memory to do with the act; be it ever so imperfect, how does it affect the guilt? If discretion is necessary, can the crime ever be committed, for, is it not the highest indiscretion in a man to take the life of another, and thereby expose his own? If the person killed be an idiot or a new born infant, is he a reasonable creature? Who is in the king's peace? What is malice aforethought? Can there be any malice afterthought? Livingst. Syst. of Pen. Law; 186. 3. According to Coke's definition there must be, 1st. Sound mind and memory in the agent. By this is understood there must be a will, (q.v.) and legal discretion. (q.v.) 2. An actual killing, but it is not necessary that it should be caused by direct violence; it is sufficient if the acts done apparently endanger. life, and eventually fatal. Hawk. b. 1, c. 31, s. 4; 1 Hale, P. C. 431; 1 Ashm. R. 289; 9 Car. & Payne, 356; S. C. 38 E. C. L. R. 152; 2 Palm. 545. 3. The party killed must have been a reasonable being, alive and in the king's peace. To constitute a birth, so as to make the killing of a child murder, the whole body must be detached from that of the mother; but if it has come wholly forth, but is still connected by the umbilical chord, such killing will be murder. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1722, note. Foeticide (q.v.) would not be such a killing; he must have been in rerum natura. 4. Malice, either express or implied. It is this circumstance which distinguishes murder from every description of homicide. Vide art. Malice. 4. In some of the states, by legislative enactments, murder has been divided into degrees. In Pennsylvania, the act of April 22, 1794, 3 Smith's Laws, 186, makes "all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison, or by lying in wait, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, robbery, or burglary, shall be deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree; and the jury before whom any person indicted for murder shall be tried, shall, if they find the person guilty thereof, ascertain in their verdict, whether it be murder of the first or second degree; but if such person shall be convicted by confession, the court shall proceed by examination of witnesses, to determine the degree of the crime, and give sentence accordingly. Many decisions have been made under this act to which the reader is referred: see Whart. Dig. Criminal Law, h.t. 5. The legislature of Tennessee has adopted the same distinction in the very words of the act of Pennsylvania just cited. Act of 1829, 1 Term. Laws, Dig. 244. Vide 3 Yerg. R. 283; 5 Yerg. R. 340. 6. Virginia has adopted the same distinction. 6 Rand. R. 721. Vide, generally, Bac. Ab. h.t.; 15 Vin. Ab. 500; Com. Dig. Justices, M 1, 2; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; Hawk. Index, h.t.; 1 Russ. Cr. b. 3, c. 1; Rosc. Cr. Ev. h.t. Hale, P. C. Index, h.t.; 4 Bl. Com. 195; 2 Swift's Syst. Index, h.t.; 2 Swift's Dig. Index, h.t.; American Digests, h.t.; Wheeler's C. C. Index, h.t.; Stark. Ev. Index, h.t.; Chit. Cr. Law, Index, h.t.; New York Rev. Stat. part 4, c. 1, t. 1 and 2.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

MURDER, pleadings. In an indictment for murder, it must be charged that the prisoner "did kill and murder" the deceased, and unless the word murder be introduced into the charge, the indictment will be taken to charge manslaughter only. Foster, 424; Yelv. 205; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, *243, and the authorities and cases there cited.