mayhem
nounverbattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈmeɪhɛm//
- United States//ˈmeɪˌ(h)ɛm//
- /[ˈmeɪ̯ˌhɪ̟m]/
The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
noun
- 1
historicalThe criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.
to commit mayhem
- 2
The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
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. The defendant's counsel secured adjournment after adjournment—no one knew why. […] He [the defendant] had not a tooth in his head. The delay had been advantageously employed.
- 3
figurativeOften preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an instance of this.
In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
We terrified the mare and foal. / The fox stood still and far too bold. / So we strung him up, brush neatly folded— / Mayhem, maybe.
In the 1870's, a young newspaper editor named Henry George walked the streets of San Francisco lamenting the paradoxical economic mayhem that lay all around him.
- 4
figurativeViolent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury on a person or thing.
The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
This same man, after failing through intimidation to elicit from me the names of our editorial contributors, against giving which he knew me to be pledged, beat himself weary upon me with a raw hide, I not resisting, and then pantingly threatened me with permanent disfiguring mayhem, if ever again I should introduce his name into print, […]
"Tell me," I said, "when one surrenders his personal feelings to his professional feelings, may not the action be defined as a sort of spiritual mayhem?"
Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English mayehem, maihem, a late form of maym, maim (“disfigurement, injury, mutilation; disfigured person”) (whence modern English maim (noun)), from Anglo-Norman mahaim, mahainne (“mutilation”), and Old French mehaing, meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”). The verb is partly: * from Late Middle English mahaym, maheyme, a late form of maimen, maymen (“to injure seriously, mutilate, maim; to damage; to destroy; to afflict with disease; to dispossess”) (whence modern English maim (verb)), from Anglo-Norman mahaigner, mahimer, Middle French mehaignier, and Old French mehaingner, meshaignier (“to destroy; to harm; to injure, maim”); and * from the modern English noun. The etymology of the Old French words is uncertain; they are possibly from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to damage; to hurt; to change; to exchange”) (compare Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”); Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”); Old Norse meiða (“to injure”)), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change; to exchange; etc.”), possibly from *mey- (“to change; to exchange”). If so, the English word is a doublet of mad.
verb
- 1
archaicTo commit the criminal offence of mayhem (noun sense 1) on (someone); to maim.
It is a gentle holineſſe […] to riſe vp in routes and fight againſt chriſten men, and deſtroy […] many a good religious houſe, ſpoyled, meyhemed, ⁊ ſlaine many a good vertuous man, robbed, polluted, and pulled downe manye a goodly church of Chriſt.
The breache of the Peace that may be practiſed againſt the perſon, climbeth to the deſtruction of the perſon, by ſundry degrees: as by Threates, Affray or aſſault, and violent and malicious ſtriking, and beating, vvounding, mayheming and killing.
- 2
archaicTo violently inflict injury on (someone); to injure, to wound.
Outside the enclosures a parade of pugs went solemnly through their exercises—skipping rope, mayheming the punching bags, pawing the air at invisible opponents.
Forms
- plural
- mayhems
- past tense
- mayhemed
- past participle
- mayhemed
- present participle
- mayheming
- third person singular
- mayhems
mayhem · The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
Maynard · A surname.mayo · A white person.Mayo · A county of Ireland.