Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Law The offense of willfully maiming or crippling a person.
- n. Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing; wanton destruction: children committing mayhem in the flower beds.
- n. A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. At common law, a crime consisting in the violent doing of a bodily hurt to another person, such as renders him less able in fighting either to defend himself or to annoy his adversary, as distinguished from one which merely disfigures. See maim.
Wiktionary
- n. A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
- n. Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing.
- n. law The maiming of a person by depriving him of the use of any of his limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.
- n. law The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Law) The maiming of a person by depriving him of the use of any of his members which are necessary for defense or protection. See maim.
- n. Violent disorder, especially such as causes serious harm to persons or damage to property.
WordNet 3.0
- n. violent and needless disturbance
- n. the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person
Etymologies
- Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim ("mutilation"), from Old French mahaign ("bodily harm, loss of limb"), from Germanic, from Proto-Germanic *maidijanan (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden 'gelding', Old Norse meiða 'to injure', Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 maidjan 'to alter, falsify'), from Proto-Indo-European *mei (“to change”). More at mad. The original meaning referred to the crime of maiming, the other senses derived from this. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English maim, mayhem, from Anglo-Norman maihem, from Old French mahaigne, injury, from mahaignier, to maim, from Vulgar Latin *mahanāre, probably of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I like the word mayhem but it sounds a bit harsh than what we've got going on.”
“Sounds great, working in mayhem is not nice at all.”
“To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated.”
School Suspends Six-Year-Old Boy For Bringing Folding Silverware to Lunch
“SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said Tuesday that the cause of last week's market mayhem is still unknown but practically ruled out some ...”
Washington: Political News & Issues from Obamas White House & Congress
“That type of mayhem is a long way away, but the potential for BCS controversy is high, unlike last season, when Florida, Alabama and Texas moved into the top three spots in late September and didn't budge until the SEC title game.”
The Huffington Post: College Football Rankings Week 6: Big Change Atop AP Poll
“Dave: Domestic mayhem is a permanent condition, my spare time is spent with Dylan or domestic chores.”
“As before, director Robert McNamara has assembled a large cast to re-create not only the mischievous men sowing mayhem from the safety of a CBS radio studio, but also to voice the reactions of the widely duped public.”
The Washington Post: Review: Scena Theatre's 'The War of the Worlds' at H Street Playhouse
“How odd that murder and mayhem is what I turn to but I guess because I like how the good guys win (usually!) and everything gets resolved in the end.”
“According to William Buiter in the FT a large part of the financial mayhem is down to rampant dishonesty amounting to criminality in some of the financial institutions.”
“Whether this will have any effect at all on the availability to those minded to use them for mayhem is another question, since absent enforcement, laws only effect the law abiding. on November 3, 2008 at 3: 42 pm | Reply ChrisC”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mayhem’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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JURI - crimes and offences
Don't commit any of these if you can
firearms trafficking, serious and organ..., trafficking in hu..., illegal shipment ..., cybercrime, money laundering, sale of counterfe..., sale of dangerous..., smuggling, infraction, corruption, organised crime and 153 more...
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
( open list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.co...ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 136 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
writeoff, wreck, bust, washout, turkey, untergang, undoing, total loss, flop, muck up, louse-up, goof-up and 156 more...
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The Bucolic Abattoir
Words which, when spoken, suggest something other than their real meaning.
bucolic, fungible, brouhaha, narthex, restive, inflammable, invaluable, raze, pulchritude, noisome, fatuous, terrific and 21 more...
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You are the all-singing, all-dancing ...
Words from Fight Club (novel/film)
nitric acid, mischief, mayhem, soap, murder-suicide, bitch tits, seminoma, pornographic, chakra, dementia, steroids, tumor and 3 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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ashton's Words
genocide, boingy, umwelt, zeitgeist, fungible, vorpal, spawn, discordian, fnord, surreptitious, xyzzy, corruption and 122 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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Words that delight me
tepid, perfunctory, trope, benign, inordinate, bewildering, ersatz, boon, delectable, apt, scuttlebutt, sequester and 398 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mayhem.
pterodactyl For a word that means chaos and violence, "mayhem" is actually a rather tidy and dignified pair of syllables. With a capital M, Mayhem looks to me like the name of a small village in the English countryside, the kind of place that where you'd find carefully-trimmed window boxes and an interesting selection of doilies. Jun 8, 2012
johnmperry cf maim Sep 6, 2008
lampbane "A storm of smoldering intensity and lightning-quick reflexes, Mayhem unleashes waves of devastation through the ranks of even the most battle-hardened opponents."
(Official biography on the NBC American Gladiators website) Sep 6, 2008
gangerh Here, we're still trying to cope with our februaryhem. We'll worry about mayhem in May. Feb 17, 2008