- Historical, Law the crime of maiming a person, esp. in order to make the person incapable of self-defense
- destructive or violent disorder
Origin of mayhem
see maim
noun
- An example of mayhem is a mosh pit that gets out of control at a rock concert.
- An example of mayhem is a person causing a victim to not be able to walk.
Mayhem is defined as violence, damage or chaos, or the crime of crippling or mutilating a victim.
YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp
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"mayhem." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem>.
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mayhem. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem
mayhem
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"mayhem." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem>.
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mayhem. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem
mayhem
noun
- Law The criminal offense of willfully maiming, disabling, or disfiguring a person.
- Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing; wanton destruction: children committing mayhem in the flower beds.
- A state of violent disorder or riotous confusion; havoc.
Origin of mayhem
Middle English maim, mayhem from Anglo-Norman maihem from Old French mahaigne injury from mahaignier to maim from Vulgar Latin mahanāre probably of Germanic originTHE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"mayhem." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem>.
APA Style
mayhem. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem
Noun
(usually uncountable, plural mayhems)
- A state or situation of great confusion, disorder, trouble or destruction; chaos.
- What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century ?
- In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their partners.
- She waded into the mayhem, elbowing between taller men to work her way to the front of the crowd.
- The clowns would dart into the crowd and pull another unsuspecting victim into the mayhem of the ring
- Infliction of violent injury on a person or thing.
- The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
- (law) The maiming of a person by depriving him of the use of any of his limbs which are necessary for defense or protection.
- (law) The crime of damaging things or harming people on purpose.
Origin
Middle English mayme, mahaime, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation"), from Old French mahaign (“bodily harm, loss of limb"), from Germanic, from Proto-Germanic *maidijanÄ… (“to cripple, injure") (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden 'gelding', Old Norse meiða 'to injure', Gothic ðŒ¼ðŒ°ðŒ¹ðŒ³ðŒ¾ðŒ°ðŒ½ 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.
Meaning #1 may have arisen by popular misunderstanding of the common journalese expression "rioting and mayhem".
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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"mayhem." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem>.
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mayhem. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem
mayhem - Legal Definition
n
Violent, disorderly behavior.
Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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MLA Style
"mayhem." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 11 October 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem>.
APA Style
mayhem. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11th, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/mayhem
Sentence Examples
- There was trepidation by the teachers that mayhem would ensue but thankfully the children conducted themselves immaculately.
- Someone broke into this house of one of my targets and some sort of mayhem followed.
- I tried to force from my memory the mayhem and violence Grasso had wrought across the country.
- Each passing year brought the mayhem further northward, causing the old timers and the local newspaper to fret for the good old days when violence was no worse than a dog fight.
- I asked, more to take his mind off mayhem than to elicit information.
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