murder
part of speech
noun (murder, a murder, murders); verb (murder, murders, murdered, murdering)
meaning for a pupil
1) The crime of killing a person on purpose. tree →
2) Verb: to kill a person on purpose, against the law. tree →
3) (informal) Something very hard or unpleasant: The traffic was murder today. tree →
4) (informal) To do something very badly: She murdered that song. tree →
5) (informal, «could murder») To want something very much: I could murder a cup of tea. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, especially mysteries and crime novels, a murder is the puzzle detectives solve. In news it is a very serious crime. In everyday UK and Irish talk «murder» often means «really hard» or «really want». «Get away with murder» means to do bad things and not be punished.
examples
- The detective solved the murder in the last chapter. tree →
- Murder is one of the worst crimes. tree →
- Climbing that hill on a bike is murder! tree →
- I could murder a sandwich right now. tree →
- He murdered the high notes in the song. tree →
- My little sister gets away with murder. tree →
- A group of crows is called a murder. tree →
- He was accused of nothing less than murder. tree →
note
Murder means on purpose; killing by accident is not murder. Noun for the person: murderer. «A murder of crows» is a fun group noun. The informal senses are jokes and do not mean real killing.
In the corpora
- The Hatter finishes his tale: the Queen screamed «He's murdering the time!
- When the Hatter sang at the concert, the Queen «bawled out» (shouted) «He's murdering the time!
- Off with his head!»; to murder the time also means to sing it badly out of rhythm.
- "Whacked" is American gangster slang for murdered.
- "Sleeping with the fishes" is American gangster slang for murdered and dumped in water.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «murder» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.