English

Noun

suicide ‎(usually uncountable, plural suicides)

1. (uncountable) Intentional killing of oneself.
   • 1904, Harold MacGrath, The Man On The Box, ch. 22:

     The cowardice of suicide was abhorrent to him.

   • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian:

     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. The UK government will come under pressure to block access to pornographic websites this year when a committee of MPs publishes its report on protecting children online.

2. (countable) A particular instance of a person intentionally killing himself or herself, or of multiple people doing so.
   • 1919, Edgar Wallace, The Secret House, ch. 14:

     There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard.

   • 1999, Philip H. Melling, Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity and Militant Religion, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-0978-9, page 192:

     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’.

3. (countable) A person who has intentionally killed him/herself.
   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, ch. 95:

     "I remember one suicide," she said to Philip, "who threw himself into the Thames."

4. (figuratively) An action which could have the literal or figurative death of a person or organization as its consequence, although death is not the aim of the action.
   • 1959, Everett Dirksen, in the Congressional Record, Feb. 9, page 2100:

     […] I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.

   • 2000, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, The Ice Limit (ISBN 0446525871):

     “Mr. Glinn,” said Britton, “it's suicide to take a huge ship like this past the Ice Limit. Especially in this weather.”

   • 2004, Robert D. Lock, Job Search: Career Planning Guide (ISBN 0534574211), page 24:

     […] it's suicide to change jobs in mid-career.

5. (countable) A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
   • 1994, Christopher Buckley, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California, University of Nevada Press, ISBN 0-87417-247-0, page 34:

     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.

   • 2000, Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-05468-4, page 15:

     Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available.

6. 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.
7. (countable) 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.

   The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.

8. A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
9. (attributive) pertaining to a suicide bombing; as suicide belt, suicide vest

Usage notes

• See usage note at commit suicide

Synonyms

• self-killing
• self-murder
• self-slaughter
• self-slaying

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• (children's game): dodgeball, tag

Translations

Verb

suicide ‎(third-person singular simple present suicides, present participle suiciding, simple past and past participle suicided)

1. (intransitive) To kill oneself intentionally.
   • 1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams, ch. 11:

     "Her husband suicided three years ago. Just like a man!"

   • 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin 2010, page 136:

     Seems a lady poet suicided at Verringer's ranch in Sepulveda canyon one time.

2. (transitive) To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide (now especially as part of a conspiracy).
   • 1874, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, page 315:

     What genius but the Irish would have thought of a sow "gladiatoring her way" through the briars and furze; or of her pursuer calling out to her that if she didn't stop she would be "suicided by that holly-tree"?

   • 1898 October 29, in Punch, or the London charivari, page 196:

     Have bought The Shanghai Chopsticks. Proprietor at first refused to sell, but when I ordered the boiling oil he became more reasonable. Editor reports that circulation is not what it ought to be. […] Will publish proclaimation, "Any person found not in possession of The Shanghai Chopsticks (current number) will be suicided."

   • 2011, Tobias Jones, White Death (ISBN 0571275907), page 273:

     Even if he did get charged, he would be suicided long before he could involve one of the city's most important politicians in the scam.

Synonyms

• top oneself
• commit suicide
• do oneself in
• self-kill

See also

• hara-kiri
• kamikaze
• seppuku

French

Pronunciation

Noun

suicide m ‎(plural suicides)

1. suicide

Derived terms

• attentat-suicide
• suicidaire
• suicidalité
• suicide assisté
• suicider

Verb

suicide

1. inflection of suicider:
   1. first-person and third-person singular present indicative
   2. first-person and third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

Italian

Adjective

suicide f pl

1. feminine plural of suicida

Noun

suicide f pl

1. plural of suicida

Anagrams

• sudicie

Norman

Etymology

Borrowing from English suicide.

Noun

suicide m ‎(plural suicides)

1. (Jersey) suicide

Portuguese

Verb

suicide

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of suicidar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of suicidar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of suicidar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of suicidar

Spanish

Verb

suicide

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of suicidar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of suicidar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of suicidar.