murderer
English
Alternative forms
- murtherer (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English murderere; equivalent to murder + -er.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmɝdəɹɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɜːdəɹə/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: mur‧der‧er
Noun
murderer (plural murderers, feminine murderess)
- A person who commits murder.
- 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., OCLC 762755901:
- It was two o'clock when she came to herself and called for the police. The murderer was gone long ago; but there lay his victim in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled. The stick with which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the stress of this insensate cruelty
- 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
- I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.
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Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:killer
Coordinate terms
- murderess
Derived terms
- archmurderer
- axe murderer
- axe-murderer
- child murderer
- desk murderer
- mass murderer
- multimurderer
- murderers' row
- Murderers' Row
- nonmurderer
- self-murderer
- serial murderer
Related terms
- murder
- murderess
Translations
person who commits murder
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Anagrams
- demurrer