mayhem

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“
She had become the trapeze act of the circus; media mayhem was all around.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Law The offense of willfully maiming or crippling a person.
  2. noun Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing; wanton destruction: children committing mayhem in the flower beds.
  3. noun A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • A few offenders account for the vast majority of the mayhem, which is why it ebbs and flows according to how many of them happen to be locked up at any given time.
  • On September 30, Walt Disney Records unveils Nightmare Revisited with 20 fresh recordings and beloved covers of the music, mayhem, and merriment from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. —  I Like Music - music news
  • Maybe you will see some useful parallels / insights in comparing the larger world of mayhem, and this small world of mayhem —  The Moderate Voice
  • There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"--biting off another man's finger. —  Courts and Criminals
  • You won't believe the mayhem, accusations, confusion and shenanigans that follow - it is laughter all the way. —  Irish Blogs
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also maiheme; an earlier form of maim, retained archaically in legal use: see maim, n.
 

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/ˈmeɪhɛm/
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