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mayhem

[mey-hem, mey-uhm]

noun

Law. the crime of willfully inflicting a bodily injury on another so as to make the victim less capable of self-defense or, under modern statutes, so as to cripple or mutilate the victim.

random or deliberate violence or damage.

a state of rowdy disorder: Antagonisms between the various factions at the meeting finally boiled over, and mayhem ensued.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English maheym, maim < Anglo-French mahe(i)m, mahaim < Germanic; akin to Middle High German meidem gelding, Old Norse meitha to injure. See maim

Can be confused: maim, mayhem (see synonym note at maim).

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To mayhem

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Mayhem is always a great word to know.

So is indictment. Does it mean:

a formal accusation initiating a criminal case, presented by a grand jury and usually required for felonies and other serious crimes

that which is provided or enacted in a statute, as distinguished from the preamble

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Example Sentences

Mayhem is always in the mix in the morning news, but today it's downright dominating.

Remember that the current market mayhem may mean you will be buying low.

Even after the mayhem began, the authorities' response was slow.

EXPAND

Mayhem is always in the mix in the morning news, but today it's downright dominating.

Remember that the current market mayhem may mean you will be buying low.

Even after the mayhem began, the authorities' response was slow.

With storm season in full fury last summer, explore the historic mayhem wrought by hurricanes.

It's funny how you say that priests are in it for the money and that murder and mayhem revolves around them.

It is an odd departure from the anticipated script of mayhem and murder.

Check out all the desert mayhem in the gallery above.

Interviews paint a portrait of a man, perhaps a little bored, presiding over family life while plotting mayhem.

Areas where a medley of ethnic groups once lived together are being ripped apart in tribal mayhem.

With storm season in full fury, explore the historic mayhem wrought by hurricanes.

We experience horrific scenes of death and mayhem and torture on television while eating potatoe chips.

But making the ultimate playground for mindless mayhem requires a great deal of math and code.

The sober language contrasted sharply with the mayhem it provoked.

On the other hand the potential for more mayhem when everyone is armed boggles the mind.

But the authorities appear at a loss to explain the mayhem.

Your claim that religion is not the principal cause of wars, misery and mayhem is totally false.

The current mayhem at the stock markets left its mark at domain values as well.

But this year an unusual amount of mayhem is showing up in the movies themselves.

In two weeks, all the madness and mayhem of the trade deadline season will be over.

And the conspiracy was by no means limited to the officers who took part in the mayhem.

Poverty is on the way out-- among publishers, that is--and mayhem and riots are in.

Some say the army is too pragmatic to tolerate mayhem after the election.

But numbers do not capture the full scope of the mayhem.

City provides a much-needed relief from all the conflict and mayhem.

Last week, the latest eruption of looting, mayhem and hatred.

The mayhem carried over to the weekend, with the crowd scrambling to dozens of private dinners and after-parties.

Sure, some motoring maniacs will always push their luck, causing mayhem for themselves.

Eyjafjallajokull is particularly prone to producing the fine ash that has caused the current mayhem.

Which, for the viewer at home, means three and a half minutes of fun and mayhem.

Only then did the instructor exercise his authority to stop further mayhem.

Zombies are brainless un-dead violent cannibals who want to kill and wreck mayhem on society.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

mayhem or maihem (ˈmeɪhɛm)

—n
1.	law the wilful and unlawful infliction of injury upon a person, esp (formerly) the injuring or removing of a limb rendering him less capable of defending himself against attack
2.	any violent destruction or confusion

[C15: from Anglo-French mahem injury, from Germanic; related to Icelandic meitha to hurt. See maim]

maihem or maihem

—n

[C15: from Anglo-French mahem injury, from Germanic; related to Icelandic meitha to hurt. See maim]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

mayhem

1472, from Anglo-Fr. maihem (13c.), from O.Fr. mahaigne "injury," related to mahaignier "to maim" (see maim). Originally, in law, the crime of maiming a person to make him less able to defend himself or annoy his adversary.

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"... in the nineteen-thirties ... the most casual reader of murder mysteries could infallibly detect the villain, as soon as there entered a character who had recently washed his neck and did not commit mayhem on the English language."

-Ellen Glasgow

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mayhem

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