suicide
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈs(j)uːɪˌsaɪd/
ipa: /ˈsuɪˌsaɪd/
ipa: /ˌsuːɪˈsaɪd/
ipa: /ˈswisaɪd/
note: Indic
ipa: /s(j)u.sajɖ/
note: Indic
ipa: /s(j)ʊwɪˈsajɖ/
rhymes: -uːɪsaɪd
Forms: form: suicides
Etymology: First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suīcīdium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suīcīda; see the Etymology section at suīcīdium.
Senses: examples: text: As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
ref: 1838 January 27, Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:
text: The cowardice of suicide was abhorrent to him.
ref: 1904, Harold MacGrath, chapter 22, in The Man On The Box:
text: I realize and I can see / That suicide is painless / It brings on many changes / And I can take or leave it if I please
ref: 1970, “Suicide Is Painless”, Mike Altman (lyrics), Johnny Mandel (music):
text: Other global taboos, such as sex and suicide, manifest themselves widely online, with websites offering suicide guides and Hot XXX Action seconds away at the click of a button. […]
ref: 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:
glosses: The act of intentionally killing oneself.
examples: text: There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard.
ref: 1919, Edgar Wallace, chapter 14, in The Secret House:
text: In this way the Heaven's Gate community were not only escaping the threat of 'global destruction', they were hurling themselves directly into 'the lap of God', using their suicide as a way of 'bridging the chasm' between an earthly world which had no future and 'a thousand years of unmitigated peace'.
ref: 1999, Philip H. Melling, Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity and Militant Religion, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 192:
text: Prosser's focus on mental health in particular also led him to the (sometimes) life-threatening ways this can affect all of us, whether we work on the railway or not. In 2020-21, there were 247 suicides or suspected suicides on the national network - that's one every 35 hours.
ref: 2023 November 15, Ian Prosser talks to Stefanie Foster, “A healthy person is a more productive person”, in RAIL, number 996, page 36:
glosses: A particular instance of a person intentionally killing oneself, or of multiple people doing so.
examples: text: "I remember one suicide," she said to Philip, "who threw himself into the Thames."
ref: 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 95, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: Early in the film two boys are caught having sex […] and this exposure leads to suicide and much conversation. "It wasn't even with a man from this house," remarks one of the suicide's house fellows, and an off-camera matron immediately folds the dead lad's mattress.
ref: 1984 August 18, Walta Borawski, “Another Country (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 13:
synonyms: word: an hero
word: self-killer
word: self-murderer
word: self-slayer
word: suicider
word: suicidist
glosses: A person who has intentionally killed themself.
examples: text: political suicide
text: […] I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.
ref: 1959 February 9, Everett Dirksen, Congressional Record, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2009, page 2100:
text: "Mr. Glinn," said Britton, "it's suicide to take a huge ship like this past the Ice Limit. Especially in this weather."
ref: 2000, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, The Ice Limit, →ISBN:
text: […] it's suicide to change jobs in mid-career.
ref: 2004, Robert D. Lock, Job Search: Career Planning Guide, →ISBN, page 24:
text: Miranda: No good. Both routes are blocked. See these doors? The only way past is to get someone to open them from the other side. / Shepard: It's not a fortress; there's got to be something. Here, maybe we can send someone in through this ventilation shaft. / Jacob: Practically a suicide mission. I volunteer. / Miranda: I appreciate the thought, Jacob, but you couldn't shut down the security systems in time. We need to send a tech expert.
ref: 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2:
text: Italian communism and those on its left had committed political suicide.
ref: 2013 August 21, Tariq Ali, “A suicide note to Trotsky that displayed political passions we should not forget”, in The Guardian:
text: Amidst all the chaos, Großer Kurfürst slows up and strikes her colors, her crew having had enough, and have^([sic]) overpowered the officers - willing to fight, but not willing to commit suicide.
ref: 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 25:13 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2022:
glosses: An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death is not the aim of the action.
examples: text: You could sit at a corner and order your Suicide, and one of two twin brothers who worked there would hold an old-fashioned soda glass, a heavy tall V-shaped one with a round foot at the bottom, and go down the line with one shot of everything—cherry, lemon, Coke, and chocolate syrups—before adding soda water.
ref: 1994, Christopher Buckley, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 34:
text: Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available.
ref: 2000, Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Basic Books, →ISBN, page 15:
synonyms: graveyard
swamp water
glosses: A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
glosses: A diabolo trick where one of the sticks is released and allowed to rotate 360° round the diabolo until it is caught by the hand that released it.
examples: text: The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.
glosses: A run comprising a series of sprints of increasing lengths, each followed immediately by a return to the start, with no pause between one sprint and the next.
glosses: A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
examples: text: suicide belt
text: suicide vest
glosses: Pertaining to a suicide bombing.
Synonyms: word: autohomicide
word: self-blood
word: self-deletion
word: self-killing
word: self-murder
word: self-slaughter
word: self-slaying
word: sewer slide
word: sillycide
Hypernyms: word: death
word: killing
Derived terms: antisuicide
assisted suicide
bullycide
career suicide
commit suicide
cybersuicide
desuicide
double suicide
double-suicide
infinite suicide
mass suicide
medicide
murder by suicide
murdercide
murder-suicide
nonsuicide
parasuicide
postsuicide
presuicide
professional suicide
prosuicide
pseudocide
pseudosuicide
quantum suicide
race suicide
Samsonic suicide
sewer slide
sillycide
suicidal
suicide attack
suicide attacker
suicide bag
suicide baiting
suicide battery
suicide bomb
suicide bomber
suicide bombing
suicide booth
suicide burn
suicide by cop
suicide cable
suicide club
suicide cult
suicide disease
suicide door
suicide drone
suicide gene
suicide gown
suicide grip
suicide headache
suicide jockey
suicide king
suicide kit
suicide knob
suicide lane
suicidelike
suicide mission
suicide net
suicide note
suicide pact
suicide pass
suicide seed
suicide shower
suicide special
suicide squad
suicide squeeze
Suicide Sunday
suicide suspension
suicide tourism
suicide tourist
suicide tree
suicide Tuesday
suicide victim
suicide watch
suicidical
suicidism
suicidogenic
suicidology
suifuel
unassisted suicide
Related terms: word: filicide
word: fratricide
word: herbicide
word: infanticide
word: insecticide
word: matricide
word: neonaticide
word: parricide
word: patricide
word: pesticide
word: regicide
word: sororicide
sense: children's game
word: dodgeball
sense: children's game
word: tag
word: suicidee
word: commit suicide