murder

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. homicide, manslaughter. See killing.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. killing, homicide, unlawful homicide, death, destruction, annihilation, carnage, putting an end to, slaying, shooting, knifing, assassination, terrorism, dispatching, lynching, crime, felony, killing with malice aforethought, murder in the first degree, first degree murder, contract killing, murder in the second degree, murder in the third degree, manslaughter, massacre, genocide, butchery, mayhem, patricide, matricide, infanticide, fratricide, genocide, the Holocaust, suicide, foul play, ride*, dust-off*, bump-off*, the works*, the business*, one-way ticket*, dowser*; see also crime 2 .

• get away with murder*, escape punishment, take flight, avoid prosecution, avoid punishment; see evade 1 .

v.

1. [To kill unlawfully]

Syn. slay, assassinate, butcher; see kill 1 .

2. [*To ruin, especially by incompetence]

Syn. spoil, mar, misuse; see botch , destroy 1 , fail 1 .

See Synonym Study at kill .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

homicide, manslaughter, slaying, killing, assassination, shooting, execution, knifing, lynching. ''One murder makes a villain, millions a hero.''—Beilby Porteus.

WORD FIND

• accidental or unintentional: involuntary manslaughter

• automobile, from: drive-by shooting

• brother: fraticide

• ethnic group or race, of: genocide

• father: patricide

• gang-related: gangland killing, drive-by shooting, contract killing, *hit

• hired: contract killing

• infant: infanticide

• (in the) heat of passion without malice aforethought: manslaughter, crime of passion

• mass slaughter: massacre

• mother: matricide

• planned: premeditated, first-degree murder

• rage, motivated by sudden: crime of passion, manslaughter

• random act: *wilding

• self: suicide

• serial: serial killing

• sister: sororicide

• surprise, politically motivated: assassination

• suspected: foul play

• unplanned with malice aforethought: second-degree murder

II

v.

kill, slay, slaughter, assassinate, shoot, gun down, knife, run through, lynch, strangle, suffocate, decapitate, butcher, hack to death, bludgeon to death, asphyxiate, poison, dismember, disembowel, dispatch, silence, *waste, *finish off, *rub out, *wax, *hit, *ice, *smoke, *exterminate, *grease, *eighty-six, *blow away, *pump full of lead, *takeout, *put out of misery, *bump off.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun The crime of murdering someone: blood, homicide, killing. Slang: hit. See HELP. II verb To take the life of (a person or persons) unlawfully: destroy, finish (off), kill1, liquidate, slay. Informal: put away. Slang: bump off, do in, knock off, off, rub out, waste, wipe out, zap. See HELP.