suiciden.1
/ˈsuːᵻsʌɪd/, /ˈsjuːᵻsʌɪd/, U.S. /ˈsuəˌsaɪd/ 1. The action or an act of taking one's own life. Cf. suicide n.2 1.Suicide is held to be a sin in some religions and classed as a crime in many societies; for example, laws against suicide existed in English common law until 1961. The former criminal status of the act of suicide is the origin of the common collocation to commit suicide (see commit v. Phrases 6). Cf. self-murder n. 1.assisted suicide, mass suicide, murder-suicide, physician-assisted suicide, ritual suicide: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > suicide > [noun]
self-violence1532
self-slaughter1533
self-murder1570
self-destruction1572
self-death1583
self-killinga1586
self-homicide?1608
self-destroying1612
self-blood1621
suicide1643
autoctony1652
selfcide1692
suicism1751
suicidism1756
felo-de-se1771
felony-de-se1822
suicidalism1833
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §43. 98 The end and suicide of Cato.
1659 W. Charleton Ephesian Matron 114 To vindicate ones self from..inevitable Calamity, by Sui-cide is not..a Crime.
1732 London Mag. 1 251 Love and Jealousy, the old unfashionable causes of Suicide.
a1768 J. Erskine Inst. Law Scotl. (1773) II. iv. iv. 717 Suicide, which is a species of murder, ought to be governed by the common rules of murder.
1782 W. Cowper Truth in Poems 74 Charge not..Your willful suicide on God's decree.
1817 W. Selwyn Abridgem. Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 970 A proviso..declaring the policy to be void in case the insured should..commit suicide.
1891 F. W. Farrar Darkness & Dawn II. lxvi. 327 The terrible disillusionment and suicides of Gallio and of Seneca.
1967 Brit. Jrnl. Psychiatry 113 318/1 The increased rates of suicide at younger ages..may therefore partly be attributable to a ‘spill-over’ effect from the apparently sharp increase in attempted suicides in recent years.
1994 Maclean's (Toronto) 31 Oct. 14/1 There have been at least three known copycat suicides in the United States as a direct result of Cobain's death.
2015 A. Silvera More Happy than Not 48 My dad died. Well, he committed suicide and that put me in a bad place.
2. figurative. A course of action which is disastrously damaging to oneself or one's interests. Frequently with modifying word, as in career suicide, political suicide, social suicide.
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1660 T. Salusbury in tr. D. Bartoli Learned Man defended & Reform'd To Rdr. sig. A8v Thus Retaliating upon them, their Learned Suicide of Learning, with this Jesuitical Refutation of English Jesuitism.
1793 V. Knox Personal Nobility liv. 337 There should be no war, much less intestine war, which may be justly called political suicide.
1817 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. 1st Ser. III. 189 Men of genius..voluntarily committing a literary suicide in their own manuscripts.
1886 J. Ruskin Præterita I. xi. 389 The central tragedy of all the world, the suicide of Greece.
1972 Financial Times 13 Jan. 10 Middle managers generally have a poorly developed instinct for committing career suicide.
1982 D. Pendleton Mack Bolan: Return to Vietnam vi. 55 You cannot enter the prison alone, Colonel Phoenix. That would be suicide.
2003 T. Fey Mean Girls (film script, revised) (O.E.D. Archive) 23 Cady... I'm joining the Mathletes. Regina. No, no, no. You cannot do that. That is social suicide.
3. U.S. Sport (originally and chiefly Basketball). A practice drill consisting of a sprint to a set point (often a line on a basketball court) and back to the start, immediately followed by additional sprints of lengthening distances. Also in plural in same sense, esp. in to run suicides. Also (and earliest) as a modifier, esp. in suicide drill.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > training > [noun] > prior exercise or practice
warm-up1915
suicide1965
shootaround1971
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > basketball > [noun] > actions
travelling1916
pivot1920
rebounding1926
dunking1935
goaltending1939
boxout1950
rebound1954
screen-and-roll1955
pick-and-roll1960
suicide1965
hang time1969
steal1974
1965 Athletic Jrnl. Sept. 34/1 Suicide Drill... On the signal, they go at top speed to the free throw line extended where they touch the floor, turn, and go back to the baseline. The drill continues with the players touching the half-court line and returning; the free throw line at the far end of the floor and returning.
1967 Burlington (N. Carolina) Times-News 11 Mar. 3 b/1 [The coach said] ‘I promised them I'd run three suicide drills in a row if they won.’..Varsity coach Herr Hawkes explained a suicide. ‘It's a sprint-type drill that zig-zags at top speed on the hardwoods.’
1976 Yuma (Arizona) Daily Sun 15 Feb. 16/4 They know if they miss a free throw they have to run suicides.
1998 C. Rosen Barney Polan's Game 253 Me, I'd rather run a thousand suicides than get worked over with a steel pipe.
2011 D. O'Callaghan Joking Apart i. 19 We did these things called suicide runs where you had to touch every line on the basketball court. For a big lad like me that was torturous.
Phrases
suicide by cop n. originally U.S. an incident in which a person intent on dying manipulates the police into fatally shooting him or her; this as a method of taking one's own life.
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the world > life > death > killing > suicide > [noun] > types of
sati1806
satiism1828
hara-kiri1856
junshi1871
seppuku1871
ritual suicide1903
murder-suicide1904
autocide1923
mass suicide1937
doctor-assisted suicide1975
self-deliverance1975
self-deliveration1975
assisted suicide1976
suicide by cop1986
bullycide2001
1986 D. A. Soskis & C. R. Van Zandt in Behavioral Sci. & Law Autumn 434 A recently identified phenomenon that needs to be distinguished from the usual hostage situation has been called victim precipitated death or ‘suicide by cop’.
1997 M. R. Hammer & R. G. Rogan in R. G. Rogan et al. Dynamic Processes of Crisis Negotiation 12 In the case of a suicide-by-cop, a suspect may take hostages, or even kill them, in order to achieve the instrumental objective of being killed by the police.
1998 N.Y. Times 21 June iv. 3/1 ‘Why would you go and point a gun at a policeman?’ asked Michael Johnston, a..police officer involved in another suicide-by-cop incident... ‘You have to figure they're going to shoot you.’
2015 G. Jerkins & J. Thomas Done in One viii. 89 He didn't have the guts to take his own life, so he tried the next best thing. Suicide by cop.
Compounds
C1.
a. General use as a modifier, as in suicide attempt, suicide prevention, suicide risk, etc.
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1765 H. Walpole Let. 12 July in Corr. (1960) XXII. 312 I do not believe that shooting one's self through the head is catching, or that any contagion lies in a wainscot that makes one pull a suicide-trigger.
1776 S. Foote Bankrupt iii. 69 November, the suicide season.
1821 J. Bentham Liberty of Press 16 The rash and ill-judged—the suicide letter of the constitution.
1897 ‘M. Twain’ Following Equator lvii. 546 In India, the annual man-killings by snakes are..as forecastable as are the tiger-average and the suicide-average.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 15/2 The suicide rate per 100,000 persons under twenty..was 8·26.
1963 ‘D. Cory’ Hammerhead x. 123 Fedora brushed what was left of the suicide pill on to the palm of his hand.
1967 E. S. Shneidman in Bull. Suicidol. July 7/2 The 10-point program for suicide prevention here outlined is a mutual enterprise.
2003 Daily Tel. 10 June 4/4 They did not consider him a suicide risk but as a matter of routine he was checked every 15 minutes.
2013 S. Hepburn & R. J. Simon Human Trafficking around World ii. iv. 89 She has made several serious suicide attempts, as evidenced by the deep transverse scars on her wrist.
b. As a modifier with the sense ‘designating a military or (now esp.) terrorist attack carried out with the intention or expectation of dying in the process; of, involved in, or carrying out such an attack’, as in suicide aircraft, suicide attack, suicide attacker, suicide plane, etc.See also suicide belt n. 2, suicide bomber n. at Compounds 2, suicide mission n. at Compounds 2, suicide squad n. 3, suicide vest n. at Compounds 2.
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society > armed hostility > military operations > [adjective] > other types of operation
strongc1300
air–land1915
suicide1923
air-to-ground1935
triphibious1941
amphibious1943
black?1945
air-to-surface1954
search and destroy1964
1923 R. Kipling Irish Guards in Great War I. 67 There seemed no meaning or reason in the affair, unless it was a suicide-party of Germans who had run from the attack of the day before and had been ordered thus to die.
1945 News Chron. 1 June 4/5 Conferences..are believed to have included plans to counter the..suicide plane. According to a Tokio statement, these suicide attacks..are being developed by the..Japanese Naval Command.
1946 Jrnl. Royal Aeronaut. Soc. 50 293 As with the pages devoted to German aircraft, so with those given to Japanese. They are full and informative, and end with brief interesting notes on suicide aircraft and the Baka flying bomb.
1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest iv. 225 Japan's one great new weapon was her ‘kamikaze’ planes, loaded with bombs and guided to their targets by heroic suicide pilots.
1982 A. MacLean Partisans (1984) i. 15 They wouldn't hesitate to send a suicide commando behind our lines.
2004 9/11 Commission Rep. (National Comm. Terrorist Attacks upon U.S.) viii. 264 Two of these briefings discussed the hijacking threat overseas. None discussed the possibility of suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.
2004 New Scientist 15 May 36/1 Apart from a few isolated cases, modern suicide terrorism has only ever been used against democracies.
2006 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Aug. a23/2 In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers.
C2.
suicide barrier n. a tall fence-like structure or other barrier on a bridge, tower, etc., intended to prevent suicide attempts.
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1934 News (Adelaide) 22 Jan. 3/3 (caption) Suicide Barrier... The barrier..is being erected in an attempt to prevent suicides from the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
2004 L. Coleman Copycat Effect xvi. 245 Suicide barriers have..stopped people from killing themselves in many former ‘suicide spots’, including Seattle's Space Needle, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Basilica of St. Peter.
suicide bomb n. (originally) a bomb used as a means of taking one's own life; (now usually) a bomb used in an attack by a suicide bomber.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [noun] > bomb > other bombs
iron bomb1759
suicide bomb1889
crump1914
radio bomb1914
marmite1915
pineapple bomb1916
pineapple1918
germ bomb1921
stick-bomb1928
bomblet1937
breadbasket1940
flash bomb1940
blockbuster1942
butterfly bomb1942
screamer1942
plastic bomb1944
napalm bomb1945
mail bomb1972
blast bomb1976
1889 M. J. Schaack Anarchy & Anarchists xxxv. 632 My theory was that they [sc. bombs] were designed exclusively for suicidal purposes. A photographic illustration of the suicide bombs appears on page 595.
1944 Evening Tel. & Post (Dundee) 18 Dec. 2/2 A suicide bomb controlled by a pilot throughout its flight until the moment it crashes... The pilot must find his specified target at which to aim his bomb—and himself.
2004 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 3 Oct. 33 Terrorists with suicide bombs strapped around their waists.
suicide bomber n. (a) a piloted aircraft loaded with explosives which deliberately crashes into an enemy target (cf. kamikaze n. 2a) (now rare); (b) a person who carries out a military or (now esp.) terrorist bomb attack with the intention or expectation of dying in the process.
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1935 Racine (Wisconsin) Jrnl.-Times 3 Dec. 8/2 Some of those suicide bombers might be diverted by air-defense guns on the warships.
1941 New Yorker 20 Dec. 12/2 Why, a man like Kelly is a bigger threat to an enemy than any suicide bomber.
1961 Internat. Affairs 37 351 He is able to enliven his narrative with personal recollections of the ordeal undergone by the ships subjected to the ‘desperate fury’ of the Kamikaze suicide bombers.
1979 Sci., Technol., & Human Values 4 37 The attempt of a demented suicide-bomber to blow up a fully-loaded transatlantic passenger flight.
2001 J. C. Grimwood Pashazade (2003) x. 52 The police deduced that the suicide bombers had been in regular radio contact.
suicide bombing n. a bomb attack carried out by someone who intends or expects to die in the process; the use of such attacks as part of a military or (now esp.) terrorist campaign.
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society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > use of mines and explosives > [noun] > use of bombs
bombing1691
bomb-throwing1905
suicide bombing1940
clobbering1948
1940 N.Y. Times 10 Aug. (Late City ed.) 6/6 They [sc. planes] could be used for a one-way trip and surprise suicide bombing in an emergency.
1984 R. Reagan Let. 3 Nov. in Dear Americans (2003) 186 The forces who don't want a just peace in the Middle East turned to acts of terrorism. First, as you know, it was sniping, then mortar and artillery fire, and finally the suicide bombing.
2005 Guardian 3 Nov. i. 3/1 Israel says the aim is to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups responsible for last week's suicide bombing.
suicide clause n. a clause in a life insurance policy which releases the insurer from liability if the insured person dies by suicide within a specified period.
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society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance policy > clause, document, or part of policy
slip1816
suicide clause1826
suing and labouring clause1864
pink slip1901
cover letter1906
cover note1919
green card1955
satisfaction note1971
1826 Times 25 Nov. (advt.) Life Insurance, the Duelling and Suicide Clauses.
1902 C. L. Greene Med. Exam. for Life Insurance 357 There can be little doubt that in the case of persons insured under policies containing a suicide clause, such deaths are very generally reported as accidental.
1976 ‘L. Black’ Healthy Way to Die x. 112 Eddie asks her if there is a suicide clause in the life policy.
2015 Eugene (Oregon) Weekly 16 July 8/2 The only thing keeping him from firing the gun, he says, was the ‘suicide clause’ in the million-dollar life insurance policy King had recently taken out.
Suicide Corner n. now historical (in the First World War 1914–18) a name given to any of various places regarded as particularly dangerous or incurring particularly heavy losses; spec. the name given to a dangerous section of road in the Ypres salient on the Western Front.
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1915 Nottingham Evening Post 17 May 3/3 The terrific, and almost continuous shelling of some cross roads known by the sinister name of ‘Suicide Corner’, in the Ypres neighbourhood.
1917 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 2 Oct. 13/5 In the streets of Ypres, in innumerable ‘suicide corners’ and ‘machine-gun valleys’, ‘dead men's holes’ and other unhealthy spots, the prince won the complete approval of the men.
1918 A. P. Herbert Bomber Gipsy (1920) 26 Now there are homes in Hamel and tents in the Vale of Hell, And a camp at Suicide Corner, where half a regiment fell.
1997 S. Badsey & P. Taylor in P. Liddle Passchendaele in Perspective (2013) xxiii. 383 The offensive received very little attention, except for occasional items on the difficulties of transport through the mud..and of Australians at ‘Suicide Corner’.
suicide gene n. Genetics a gene which causes the death by apoptosis of a cell expressing it.Suicide genes are frequently used in cancer treatments to induce the death of cancerous cells, especially by activating a prodrug, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
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1960 N. G. Anderson in Biol. Aging: Symp. Amer. Inst. Biol. Sci. 1957 105 Suicide genes. Presence of genes leading to destruction of nonreproductive individuals.
1978 BioScience 28 498/2 The existence of these relationships is sufficient reason for the rejection of the kinds of theories that treat aging as an isolated process that can vary arbitrarily, independent of other vital processes. Speculations about a ‘suicide gene’ as the basis of aging are an example.
1999 Daily Mail (Electronic ed.) 30 June The treatment [for breast cancer] involves injecting a ‘suicide gene’ directly into tumours and results in the cancer cells effectively self-destructing.
2016 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 374 8 Suicide genes are present in all cells and the signalling molecules that switch them on and off are of countless different types.
suicide mission n. (a) colloquial an exceptionally risky or dangerous mission; (b) a military or (now esp.) terrorist mission undertaken with the intention or expectation of dying.
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1924 Theatre Mag. June 64/2 He has..paid for his four days' leave by promising to accept a ‘suicide mission’.
1945 Newcastle (New S. Wales) Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate 16 Apr. 1/4 Any Japanese pilot may be forced to undertake a suicide mission.
1968 S. Yurick Bag ix. 346 He is asked to take on this dangerous assignment (it's put to him on a voluntary basis, of course; the department does not send its men on suicide missions).
2008 Q May 140/2 An astronaut blasting off on a suicide mission, looking back over his life.
2017 O. S. Ghobash Lett. to Young Muslim 136 The greatest crime that some of our clerics commit is to tempt our youth with the promise of heaven if they undertake a suicide mission.
suicide net n. a permanent or (sometimes) portable net positioned to catch people falling from a bridge, building, or other tall structure.
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1906 Outlook 24 Feb. 466 A suicide net is stretched across the inner courtyard, under the four tiers of cells, to catch the bodies of prisoners who..throw themselves down.
1940 Amarillo (Texas) Globe 3 Sept. Police were notified and a fire company also arrived. Under the ledge they spread a recently developed suicide net.
1968 Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 26 Apr. 5/1 (heading) Gate bridge suicide net under scrutiny... The Golden Gate Bridge security committee is considering the possibility of a net to catch ‘impulse jumpers’.
2012 Atlantic Dec. 61/1 Although I had heard about the Foxconn ‘suicide nets’, I was still taken aback to see them.
suicide note n. a message left by a person before taking, or attempting to take, his or her own life; also figurative.
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1884 Independent (N.Y.) 22 May 18/1 The Gazette Piemontese publishes the latest ‘suicide’ notes for the ‘Play-Hells’ at Monaco.
1938 ‘E. Queen’ Four of Hearts xxii. 293 Park left a suicide note to efface his trail and vanished.
1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris (U.K. ed.) xiii. 285 Twice I bought barbiturate pills, enough to finish anyone, and once I wrote a suicide note.
1998 P. Gourevitch We wish to inform You vi. 99 The Arusha Accords amounted to a political suicide note.
2014 Daily Tel. 25 Apr. 12/2 Police..found several suicide notes, including one reading: ‘I have swallowed a month's supply of medication—night night.’
suicide pact n. an agreement made between two or more people to take their own lives; also figurative.
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1904 Literary Digest 15 Oct. 502/2 At first it was suspected that the tragedy was the consummation of a suicide pact.
1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 19 Apr. 4/3 Before he shot himself..he shot Miss Bovee three times, they having previously entered into a suicide pact.
1957 Observer 1 Sept. 8/3 The German electorate are baffled as to whether Nato is meant to defend their soil, or provide the tripwire for a Soviet-American suicide pact.
2008 Church Times 22 Feb. 28/3 Nearly 100 young people—some as young as 15—are thought to have died in suicide pacts that year.
suicide seat n. the front passenger seat of a car, regarded as the least safe location in the event of a crash.It is not certain that quot. 19341 shows the same meaning.
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1934 North-China Herald 28 Feb. 321/1 The Monte Carlo peopled by..polite ushers who always shrugged their shoulders with bland unconcern at the use of the suicide seat is a thing of the past.
1934 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 31 May (Late ed.) 1/5 He stepped from his suicide seat in the auto.
1969 R. Rendell Best Man to Die xv. 147 It's the seat on the driver's left that's called the suicide seat.
2000 J. M. Gray Gift for Little Master 23 Crouched in the suicide seat, feet jammed against the dash, Wallace pushes the last of a jelly bun daintily into his mouth.
suicide tourism n. depreciative the practice of travelling to a country where assisted suicide is legal, in order to end one's own life.
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1994 Crisis 15 93/3 ‘Suicide tourism’ (arising because laws differ from one country to another).
2016 Sun (Nexis) 16 Apr. 22 Canada has introduced an assisted suicide law... But visitors to the country will be excluded from the scheme to prevent the prospect of suicide tourism.
suicide tourist n. depreciative a person who travels to a country where assisted suicide is legal, in order to end his or her own life.
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2000 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 22 Jan. 260/1 Oregon was the first American state to legalise physician assisted suicide... The usual predictions of hordes of suicide tourists served by packs of death doctors have failed to materialise.
2014 Irish Examiner (Nexis) 21 Aug. The growing number of suicide tourists who take advantage of right-to-die organisations which assist people in taking their own lives.
suicide vest n. a sleeveless upper-body garment fitted with explosives that are connected to a detonator, as worn by a suicide bomber; cf. explosive vest at explosive adj. 2c.
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1987 C. Dobson & R. Payne Never-ending War i. 21 An even more terrible form of terrorism was being planned with the preparation of what was called a suicide vest. It consists of a kind of sleeveless garment with five kilos of explosive sewn into it.
2013 Daily Tel. 20 Nov. 16/1 Two blasts, one triggered by a man in a suicide vest and another by an attacker driving a car rigged with explosives.
suicide watch n. the precautionary observation of a person, esp. one in prison or otherwise confined, considered at risk of taking his or her own life; an instance of this.
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the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > vigilance > keeping watch > [noun] > surveillance > specific type of
suicide watch1929
stake-out1942
mass surveillance1955
1929 Charleroi (Pa.) Mail 8 Jan. 1/7 Pennsylvania's arch slayer, is under a ‘suicide watch’ in a new cell in the Allegheny county jail today.
2005 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 3 Sept. 3/1 When my two appeals failed I was put on suicide watch and I cut myself off from my family.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 10 Sept. i. 7/3 The young soldier had been on suicide watch..and the bolt from his rifle was taken away.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
suiciden.2adj.
/ˈsuːᵻsʌɪd/, /ˈsjuːᵻsʌɪd/, U.S. /ˈsuəˌsaɪd/ A. n.2† 2. figurative. A person who brings about his or her own downfall. Obsolete.
1. A person who has died by suicide. Also: a person who has attempted suicide; a person with suicidal tendencies. Cf. suicide n.1 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > person who commits suicide > [noun]
self-slayera1500
self-murderer1606
self-killer1624
autocide1635
self-destroyera1646
felon-de-se1648
felo-de-se1651
suicide1658
self-homicide1681
suicidist1814
suicider1841
1658 W. Jacob in F. Taylor Grapes from Canaan sig. a2 (Were't not a crime) I could turn Suicide.
1732 London Mag. 1 252 The Suicide owns himself..unequal to the Troubles of Life.
1769 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. IV. xiv. 189 The suicide is guilty of a double offence: one spiritual, in invading the prerogative of the Almighty..: the other temporal, against the king.
1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 953 The wounds inflicted by a suicide upon himself are usually in the front, and in an oblique direction.
1860 F. Nightingale Notes on Nursing (rev. ed.) xiii. 168 A fourth [patient], who is a depressed suicide, requires a little cheering.
1966 H. Kemelman Saturday Rabbi went Hungry xviii. 83 It's unclean because there's a suicide buried there. A suicide is supposed to be buried in a corner, near the wall, off to one side.
2004 G. Woodward I'll go to Bed at Noon vi. 124 His..therapy sessions with a group of other would-be suicides had caused him to think about the past, and his own childhood.
ΚΠ
1727 E. Young Universal Passion: Satire V 6 If fate forbears us, fancy strikes the blow, We make misfortune, Suicides in woe.
1824 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. I. vii. 89 [Elizabeth I] Those are the worst of suicides, who voluntarily and prepensely stab or suffocate their fame.
Designating a person who has died, or who intends to die, by suicide. Obsolete.Later examples of suicide used as a modifier to designate a person, such as suicide bomber, are more likely to be compounds of suicide n.1 1.
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1798 H. Hunter in J. Fell & H. Hunter Lect. Evidences Christianity vii. 213 Now, corrupted man is that desperate suicide patient, armed with deadly poison, to destroy all that renders existence a blessing.
1805 (title) The suicide prostitute.
1817 Lady Morgan France (1818) I. 38 The chateau of the suicide husband.
1894 F. M. Crawford Casa Braccio II. ii. 220 The lonely grave of the outcast and suicide woman.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
suicidev.
/ˈsuːᵻsʌɪd/, /ˈsjuːᵻsʌɪd/, U.S. /ˈsuəˌsaɪd/ 1.
a. transitive (reflexive). To take one's own life; to die by suicide.
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the world > life > death > killing > suicide > [verb (reflexive)]
murderc1175
spill1390
spoil1578
to make away1581
massacre1591
misdo1599
self-murder1648
to lay violent hands on (or upon)1662
to make away with1667
to rip up1807
suicide1818
1818 tr. M. F. C. E. Manson & H. de Latouche Mem. Madame Manson 17 The assassins wished to persuade the public that M. Fualdès suicided (s'était suicidé lui-même) himself.
1828 Standard 30 June Clarissa consents to postpone ‘suiciding herself’ until she has tried the effects of matrimony.
a1890 R. F. Burton in I. Burton Life R. F. Burton (1893) I. 45 There is hardly a place in Italy..where some Englishman has not suicided himself.
1989 S. Soracco Low Bite (2010) v. 33 You know they banned Tampax once, claiming someone suicided herself by choking on one.
b. intransitive. To take one's own life; to die by suicide.In quot. 1840 in half-suiciding, perhaps referring to the fact that Romeo is one half of a double suicide.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > suicide > [verb (intransitive)]
to commit suicide1712
suicide1840
to end it (all)1911
to take one's (own) life1920
to drink the Kool-Aid1978
1840 C. J. Lever Charles O'Malley xxxii, in Dublin Univ. Mag. Sept. 354/2 Here was I enacting Romeo for three mortal days.., soliloquising, half-suiciding.
1868 Wisconsin State Jrnl. 24 Oct. A French lady of fortune recently suicided because a boil on her nose disfigured her appearance.
1898 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Romance of Canvas Town 133 I don't wonder that they suicide now and then.
1991 G. Greer Change iv. 101 The heroine's friends, though of differing ages and temperaments, are in difficulties too. One suicides, one runs away with a younger man.
2. transitive. To kill (a person) so as to make it appear a suicide. Also: to cause (a person) to take his or her own life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (transitive)]
swevec725
quelmeOE
slayc893
quelleOE
of-falleOE
ofslayeOE
aquellc950
ayeteeOE
spillc950
beliveOE
to bring (also do) of (one's) life-dayOE
fordoa1000
forfarea1000
asweveOE
drepeOE
forleseOE
martyrOE
to do (also i-do, draw) of lifeOE
bringc1175
off-quellc1175
quenchc1175
forswelta1225
adeadc1225
to bring of daysc1225
to do to deathc1225
to draw (a person) to deathc1225
murder?c1225
aslayc1275
forferec1275
to lay to ground, to earth (Sc. at eird)c1275
martyrc1300
strangle1303
destroya1325
misdoa1325
killc1330
tailc1330
to take the life of (also fro)c1330
enda1340
to kill to (into, unto) death1362
brittena1375
deadc1374
to ding to deathc1380
mortifya1382
perisha1387
to dight to death1393
colea1400
fella1400
kill out (away, down, up)a1400
to slay up or downa1400
swelta1400
voida1400
deliverc1400
starvec1425
jugylc1440
morta1450
to bring to, on, or upon (one's) bierc1480
to put offc1485
to-slaya1500
to make away with1502
to put (a person or thing) to silencec1503
rida1513
to put downa1525
to hang out of the way1528
dispatch?1529
strikea1535
occidea1538
to firk to death, (out) of lifec1540
to fling to deathc1540
extinct1548
to make out of the way1551
to fet offa1556
to cut offc1565
to make away?1566
occise1575
spoil1578
senda1586
to put away1588
exanimate1593
unmortalize1593
speed1594
unlive1594
execute1597
dislive1598
extinguish1598
to lay along1599
to make hence1605
conclude1606
kill off1607
disanimate1609
feeze1609
to smite, stab in, under the fifth rib1611
to kill dead1615
transporta1616
spatch1616
to take off1619
mactate1623
to make meat of1632
to turn up1642
inanimate1647
pop1649
enecate1657
cadaverate1658
expedite1678
to make dog's meat of1679
to make mincemeat of1709
sluice1749
finisha1753
royna1770
still1778
do1780
deaden1807
deathifyc1810
to lay out1829
cool1833
to use up1833
puckeroo1840
to rub out1840
cadaverize1841
to put under the sod1847
suicide1852
outkill1860
to fix1875
to put under1879
corpse1884
stiffen1888
tip1891
to do away with1899
to take out1900
stretch1902
red-light1906
huff1919
to knock rotten1919
skittle1919
liquidate1924
clip1927
to set over1931
creasea1935
ice1941
lose1942
to put to sleep1942
zap1942
hit1955
to take down1967
wax1968
trash1973
ace1975
1852 C. J. Ingersoll Hist. Sketch Second War U.S.A. & Great Brit. 2nd Ser. I. iv. 420 The Duke of Berry assassinated, the Duke of Bourbon suicided, Napoleon dethroned and imprisoned for life.
1900 Spectator 2 June 769 It might be safer than suiciding him.
1984 D. A. Yallop In God's Name (1985) 160 Clearly Italian banking has many attendant risks. Mario Tronconi was by no means the only banker to be ‘suicided’.
2008 Z. Sharp Third Strike (2009) xxvii. 258 ‘Bastards,’ I said slowly, clenched with an impotent rage. ‘They suicided her.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2020; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.11643
n.2adj.1658
v.1818- pack up one's alls
- pack up one's awls
- pack up one's bags
- pack up one's ends and awls
- pack up one's pipes
- pack wall
- pack-ass
- pack-bag
- pack-bearer
- pack-bearing
- pack-box
- pack-bullock
- pack-cinch
- pack-clouds
- pack-cow
- pack-donkey
- pack-draper
- pack-drill
- pack-driver
- pack-duck
- pack-flat
- pack-fork
- pack-full
- pack-hook
- pack-laden