Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
The 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.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, historical, uncountable, usually
Qualifier: criminal law
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, broadly, uncountable, usually
Qualifier: criminal law
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Often preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an instance of this.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, uncountable, usually
Synonyms: bedlam, car crash, chaos, confusion, disarray, disorder, disorganization, dog's breakfast, dog's dinner, free-for-all, fuddle, hash, hot mess, imbroglio, mash, maze, mess, misorder, mommick, muddle, mullock, muss, shambles, shemozzle, snarl, tangle, topsy-turviness, upfuckery, ado, argy-bargy, bangarang, bobbery, brouhaha, bunfight, bustle, bust-up, ferment, clamour, clatter, commotion, disruption, disturbance, flap, flutter, foofaraw, fracas, furor, fuss, hobbleshaw, hoo-ha, hoo-hah, hubbub, hullabaloo, hurly-burly, kerfuffle, mayhem, merry hell, outcry, palaver, pandemonium, pother, quarrel, riot, rowdydow, ruckus, rumpus, shindy, splatterdash, stir, stooshie, three-ring circus, to-do, tomfoolery, trouble, tumult, turmoil, unrest, uproar, upstir
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Violent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury on a person or thing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively, uncountable, usually
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To commit the criminal offence of mayhem (noun sense 1) on (someone); to maim.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, transitive
Topics: law
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To violently inflict injury on (someone); to injure, to wound.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, figuratively, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: abuse, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere, do damage to, do for, do ill, do violence to, forwork, grieve, harm, harrow, hurt, injure, maul, mayhem, misdo, put someone in hospital, scaith, scathe, vulnerate, wet, wound
Antonyms: none provided
noun
violent and needless disturbance
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: havoc
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: disturbance
noun
the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: crime, offense, criminal offense, criminal offence, offence, law-breaking
History
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.
Across languages
77 source translations are retained for this English entry.
