murder

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}]
    

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.
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   2. To destroy; to put an end to.
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            [Canst thou] murder thy breath in middle of a word?
                                                  --Shak.
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   3. To mutilate, spoil, or deform, as if with malice or
      cruelty; to mangle; as, to murder the king's English.
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   Syn: To kill; assassinate; slay. See {Kill}.
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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.
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         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.
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         Slaughter grows murder when it goes too far. --Dryden.
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   Note: Murder in the second degree, in most jurisdictions, is
         a malicious homicide committed without a specific
         intention to take life. --Wharton.
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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).
    

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. 
    

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. 
    

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