Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Murderous

Mur′der-ous

,
Adj.
Of or pertaining to murder; characterized by, or causing, murder or bloodshed; having the purpose or quality of murder; bloody; sanguinary;
as, the
murderous
king;
murderous
rapine;
murderous
intent; a
murderous
assault.
Murderous coward.”
Shak.
Mur′der-ous-ly
,
adv.
Syn. – Bloody; sanguinary; bloodguilty; bloodthirsty; fell; savage; cruel.

Webster 1828 Edition


Murderous

MUR'DEROUS

,
Adj.
Guilty of murder; as the murderous king.
1.
Consisting in murder; done with murder; bloody; cruel; as murderous rapine.
2.
Bloody; sanguinary; committing murder; as murderous tyranny.
3.
Premeditating murder; as murderous intent or design.

Definition 2024


murderous

murderous

English

Adjective

murderous (comparative more murderous, superlative most murderous)

  1. Intending, or likely to commit murder; bloodthirsty or homicidal.
    murderous behaviour
    • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:
      [O]ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam.
  2. Very difficult.
    a murderous exam

Translations