murder

mur|der¹ W2S3 [ˈmə:də US ˈmə:rdər] n

[Origin: Partly from Old English morthor, partly from Old French murdre]

1.) [U and C]

the crime of deliberately killing someone

→↑manslaughter

▪ On the night the murder was committed , he was out of the country.

▪ The man accused of her murder will appear in court today.

murder of

▪ the brutal murder of a young child

▪ He was found guilty of attempted murder .

▪ She was charged with two counts of first degree murder .

▪ The mother of the murder victim wept in court.

▪ Police are still searching for the murder weapon .

▪ Detectives have launched a murder investigation .

2.) get away with murder informal

to do anything you want, even things that are wrong, without being punished

▪ She lets those kids get away with murder.

3.) be murder

spoken to be very difficult or unpleasant

▪ It's murder doing the shopping on Saturdays.

▪ The traffic was murder this morning.

4.) be murder on sth

spoken to harm or damage something else

▪ These new shoes are murder on my feet.

→scream blue murder at ↑scream¹ (1)

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COLLOCATES for sense 1

commit (a) murder

investigate a murder

accuse somebody of murder/charge somebody with murder

a brutal murder

attempted murder (=the crime of trying to kill someone)

first-degree murder American English (=the most serious type of murder under US law)

mass murder (=of a large number of people)

murder victim

murder weapon

murder investigation/inquiry

murder case/trial

murder charge

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murder ²

murder² v [T]

1.) to kill someone deliberately and illegally

▪ He was convicted of murdering a policeman.

▪ Thousands of civilians were brutally murdered during the civil war.

▪ the murdered man

see usage note ↑kill¹

2.) informal to spoil a song, play etc by performing it very badly

▪ It's a good song, but they murdered it.

3.) sb will murder you

spoken used to tell someone that another person will be very angry with them

▪ Your dad'll murder you when he hears about it.

4.) I could murder a beer/pizza etc

BrE spoken used to say that you are very hungry or thirsty and want a particular food or drink

5.) informal to defeat someone completely

▪ They murdered us in the final.