murderousadj.
/ˈməːd(ə)rəs/, U.S. /ˈmərd(ə)rəs/ 1.
a. Of a person: capable of or intent on committing murder; predisposed or inclined to commit murder; dangerously violent; †guilty of murder (obsolete).
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the world > life > death > killing > man-killing or homicide > murder or assassination > [adjective]
murderous1535
Cainish?1541
murdering1550
murderish1550
Herodian1581
slaughterous1582
death-doing1590
carnal1597
assassinating1609
man-killing?1611
assassinous1623
cut-throat?a1625
Cain-like1656
red-handed1781
assassinative1841
manquelling1916
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Zeph. ii. 5 Wo vnto you yt dwel vpon the see coost, ye murthurous people.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney tr. Psalmes David (1823) v. ii Thou, the Lord, in endless hatred hast The murd'rous man.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. ii. 87 Stay murtherous villaines will you kill your brother? View more context for this quotation
1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote IV. xxvii. 213 Ye murderous Polymeans, ye butcherous Lions.
1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 76 Enforc't to flye Thence into Egypt, till the Murd'rous King Were dead, who sought his life. View more context for this quotation
1689 in Colonial Rec. Pennsylvania (1852) I. 252 He was pleased to direct that ye murtherous woman's sentence should proceed.
1721 J. Hughes Siege Damascus (ed. 2) v. ii. 62 Too well I know thee now, O murd'rous fiend!
1770 J. Armstrong Forced Marriage v. viii, in Misc. II. 115 O murderous villain!—Go, Compose the body privately; and let No whisper of this sad event steal out.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. xiii. 247 Be it known to you..that certain murderous caitiffs, casting behind them fear of God, and reverence of his church [etc.].
1872 ‘M. Twain’ Roughing It xii. 106 He was nothing but a..blackguard! He was murderous enough, possibly, to fill the bill of a Destroyer.
1915 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear ii. v. 257 The murderous gang had vanished in the mists of the morning.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 640 The cock of the woods..does not notice the approach of a murderous biped with a gun.
1985 I. Hislop Secret Diary Lord Gnome 65/2 What about the Belgrano then, you murderous old cow?
b. Of a weapon, physical agent, etc.: used for murder; causing or capable of causing death; deadly, fatal. Later frequently figurative and hyperbolical.
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1565 T. Norton & T. Sackville Gorboduc iii. i Fatall plagues pursue the giltie race Whose murderous hand imbrued wt giltless blood Askes vengeaunce.
1584 W. Warner Pan his Syrinx xliv. sig. Q4 Vse once more thy murtherous weapon to dispatch me of life.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Richard III (1623) i. ii. 94 Queene Margaret saw Thy murd'rous [1597 bloudy] Faulchion smoaking in his blood.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) ii. iii. 140 This murtherous Shaft that's shot, Hath not yet lighted: and our safest way, Is to auoid the ayme.
1658 A. Cokayne Trappolin iii. ii. 474 Not all The murtherous canon bullets I have heard Fly buzzing by my ears..have ever mov'd me.
1719 I. Watts Hymns (1751) ii. lxxxiv. 206 The rich Flood of purple Gore Their murth'rous Weapons dy'd.
1796 R. Southey Joan of Arc x. 382 Emulous he strove, like the young lionet When first he bathes his murderous jaws in blood.
1811 J. Pinkerton Petralogy II. 496 In different parts around the mountain, powerful murtherous vapours, of a mephitic nature, were exhaled.
a1894 R. L. Stevenson Amateur Emigrant (1895) 87 He..put out his pipe, gave me one murderous look, and set off upon his errand strolling.
1913 W. Cather O Pioneers! iv. vii. 260 He went into his bedroom and took his murderous 405 Winchester from the closet.
1959 D. Hewett Bobbin Up (1961) iv. 45 The little semis..defending their privacy from the street with rows of murderous iron spikes.
1981 G. Vidal Creation v. ii. 261 Demaratus gave me a murderous look.
2. Of or relating to murder or murderers; characterized by or involving murder.
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1565 T. Norton & T. Sackville Gorboduc iv. i A Sacrifice to appeaze That deadlie minde & murderous thought in the.
1566 W. Painter Palace of Pleasure I. xlii. f. 137 The tongue..she haled out of his mouthe,..beholdyng the same with a murderous eye, as she was cuttyng it of.
1592 T. Kyd Spanish Trag. ii. sig. D3 What murdrous spectacle is this? A man hangd vp and all the murderers gone.
1623 H. Cockeram Eng. Dict. Sullevation, a murderous intent.
a1694 J. Tillotson Serm. (1742) III. xlii. 198 With what a salvage and murderous disposition they fly at one another's reputation and tear it in pieces.
a1797 E. Burke Fourth Let. Peace Regicide Directory France in Writings & Speeches (1991) IX. 71 On their murderous insurrectionary system their own lives are not sure for an hour.
1837 T. De Quincy Revolt of Tartars 72 The Bashkirs..felt it prudent, wheresoever they were sufficiently at leisure from the passions of the murderous scene, to gather into bodies.
1873 Spectator 22 Feb. 240/1 Here are ‘Cut-throats’, the male [bird] with a murderous red mark round his soft neck, the female without it.
1959 Encounter July 78/1 The murderous days of the blood-purges.
2001 What's on TV 21 Apr. 22 Gillian Kearney loves her murderous work!
3. Of the nature of murder; resulting in murder.
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the world > life > death > killing > man-killing or homicide > murder or assassination > [adjective] > characteristic of murder
murderousa1616
sicarious1811
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) v. i. 183 Who can be bound by any solemne Vow To do a murd'rous deede. View more context for this quotation
1660 Exact Accompt Trial Regicides f. 53 Suppose..they should have agreed upon such a Murtherous Act.
1718 M. Prior Solomon on Vanity iii, in Poems Several Occasions (new ed.) 495 But if she has deform'd this earthly life With murderous rapine, and seditious strife.
1845 W. L. Garrison in F. Douglass Narr. Life F. Douglass Pref. p. xi He relates two instances of murderous cruelty,—in one of which a planter deliberately shot a slave.
1877 M. Oliphant Makers of Florence (ed. 2) iv. 93 The Florence of the historians..in which so many murderous encounters..were always going on.
1971 H. Macmillan Riding Storm xii. 396 [He] was to fall a victim to the murderous attack of a fanatical monk less than two years later.
1987 C. P. Christ Laughter of Aphrodite (1988) 9 The Christian version of particularism, which had proven murderous to the Jews.
4. In weakened sense: that is physically or mentally overpowering; arduous or exhausting in the extreme. Cf. killing adj. 2.
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a1902 F. Norris Pit (1903) vi. 208 He would, at high noon and under a murderous sun, make the trip from the house to the dock where the ‘Thetis’ was moored.
1920 D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xxix. 453 It was indeed cold... Ursula could not believe the air in her nostrils. It seemed conscious, malevolent, purposive in its intense murderous coldness.
1988 Today's Runner June 63/1 A two mile road race, one murderous mile uphill, followed by a super-fast one downhill.
2000 Sunday Mail (Electronic ed.) 22 Oct. A lifetime in the game will be measured by how long a player can put up with the murderous cycle of European, domestic and international matches.
Compounds
murderous-looking adj.
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1808 in Catal. Prints: Polit. & Personal Satires (Brit. Mus.) (1947) VIII. 661 I say Nap you may as well put my Crown in your pocket, for you shall not catch me amongst such murderous looking fellows.
1835 G. P. R. James Gipsy i ‘This is a murderous-looking spot’, said Colonel Manners.
1948 Life June 115/2 A great marble desk cluttered with..a pile of current newspapers and a murderous-looking pair of clipping shears.
murderous-minded adj.
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1610 T. Collins Penitent Publican sig. D That murtherous minded, all-assaulting sin.
1654 T. Gataker Disc. Apol. 62 This..murtherous-minded man.
1952 C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil Aeneid ix. 208 The brute, in alarm, backs away, murderous-minded.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.1535