MURDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does murder mean? 

• MURDER (noun)
  The noun MURDER has 1 sense:

1. unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being

  Familiarity information: MURDER used as a noun is very rare.

• MURDER (verb)
  The verb MURDER has 2 senses:

1. kill intentionally and with premeditation

2. alter so as to make unrecognizable

  Familiarity information: MURDER used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MURDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

execution; murder; slaying

Hypernyms ("murder" is a kind of...):

homicide (the killing of a human being by another human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "murder"):

bloodshed; gore (the shedding of blood resulting in murder)

thuggee (murder and robbery by thugs)

tyrannicide (killing a tyrant)

shoot-down (murder by shooting someone down in cold blood)

infanticide (murdering an infant)

hit (a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate)

dry-gulching (the act of killing from ambush)

regicide (the act of killing a king)

lynching (putting a person to death by mob action without due process of law)

butchery; carnage; mass murder; massacre; slaughter (the savage and excessive killing of many people)

elimination; liquidation (the murder of a competitor)

filicide (the murder of your own son or daughter)

uxoricide (the murder of a wife by her husband)

fratricide (the murder of your sibling)

mariticide (the murder of a husband by his wife)

parricide (the murder of your own father or mother)

contract killing (a murder carried out on agreement with a hired killer)

assassination (murder of a public figure by surprise attack)

Derivation:

murder (kill intentionally and with premeditation)

murderous (characteristic of or capable of or having a tendency toward killing another human being)

• MURDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they murder    ... he / she / it murders   
Past simple: murdered   
Past participle: murdered   
-ing form: murdering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Kill intentionally and with premeditation

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

bump off; dispatch; hit; murder; off; polish off; remove; slay

Context example:

The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered

Hypernyms (to "murder" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "murder"):

burke (murder without leaving a trace on the body)

execute (murder in a planned fashion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to murder the prisoners

Derivation:

murder (unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being)

murderer (a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Alter so as to make unrecognizable

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

mangle; murder; mutilate

Context example:

The tourists murdered the French language

Hypernyms (to "murder" is one way to...):

distort; falsify; garble; warp (make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Three undetected murders in one year won’t do, Lestrade.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“The murder was done with it.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Murder, if ever there was one upon earth.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You have not forgot, sir, that at the time of the murder he had still the key with him?

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If the two people were murdered, who but their murderer would have sent this sign of his work to Miss Cushing?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I shall expect murder and everything of the kind.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was of a man, who had murdered one of that gentleman’s intimate acquaintance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“But somebody is always being murdered, and I didn't read it.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Murdered off the coast of Andres! an' you consated his body lay under!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)