Noun

Singular murder

Plural murders

murder (plural murders)

1. (countable) An act of deliberate killing of another human being.

   There have been ten unsolved murders this year alone.

2. (uncountable) (law) The crime of deliberate killing.

   The defendant was charged with murder.

3. (uncountable) (When used as a predicative noun): Something terrible to endure.

   This headache is murder.

4. (countable) The collective noun for crows
   • 1995, Deepak Chopra, The Return of Merlin: A Novel, ISBN 0517598493, page 108:

     For his part, Melchior was growing unhappy with the murder of crows. They had been patiently following Arthur for hours, trailing him from town to country.

   • 2001, Daniel Handler, The Vile Village, ISBN 0064408655, page 76:

     Without the murder of crows roosting in its branches, Nevermore Tree looked as bare as a skeleton.

   • 2004, Incubus, A Crow Left of the Murder...,

     Out of line! Indivisable! A crow left of the murder!

Synonyms

• (act of deliberate killing): manslaughter, assassination
• (group of crows): flock

Derived terms

• attempted murder
• murderer
• murderess
• murderize
• murderous

• murdersome
• cry blue murder
• first-degree murder
• mass murder
• second-degree murder

• wink murder
• murder in the first degree
• murder in the second degree
• murder will out

Murder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide. As the loss of a human being inflicts enormous grief upon the individuals close to the victim, as well as the fact that the commission of a murder permanently deprives the victim of their existence, most societies both present and in antiquity have considered it a most serious crime worthy of the harshest of punishment. Typically a convicted murder suspect is given a life sentence or even the death penalty for such an act. The word murder is related, in old English, to the French word mordre (bite) in reference to the heavy compensation one must pay for causing an unjust death. A person who commits murder is called a murderer; the term murderess, meaning a woman who murders, has largely fallen into disuse.

Homicide refers to the act of killing another human being. Although homicide does not define an illegal act necessarily, sometimes it is used synonymously with "murder."

For the 1990s police television series, see Homicide: Life on the Street

Sourced

• Thou shalt not kill.
  • The Bible (King James Version), Deuteronomy 5:17. Alternatively translated as "You shall not murder" (New International Version); "Do not murder" (Contemporary English Version); "Thou dost not murder" (Young's Literal Translation); "Do not kill another person" (New Life Version); "Do not commit murder" (New International Reader's Version).

• Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is the immediate gift of the great creator; and which therefore no man can be entitled to deprive himself or another of, but in some manner either expressly commanded in, or evidently deducible from, those laws which the creator has given us; the divine laws, I mean, of either nature or revelation.
  • William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769), Book IV, ch. 14: Of Homicide.

• Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet, (Ghost, Act I, scene v).

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Fri Sep 11 18:31:40 2009