regicide
Americannoun
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the killing of a king.
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a person who kills a king or is responsible for his death, especially one of the judges who condemned Charles I of England to death.
noun
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the killing of a king
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a person who kills a king
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of regicide
Explanation
Regicide is the killing of a king (or queen). The word derives from the Latin regis, meaning "king," and the ancient French cide, meaning "killer." Today, the word regicide can also be applied to politicians who topple a president or prime minister. People had been killing kings and queens (think Cleopatra) long before the term regicide really took off, which was after the execution of King Charles I in England in 1649. He was executed by guillotine, but a far worse fate awaited those who had signed off on his killing: they were hung, drawn, and quartered. Dangerous profession, regicide.
Vocabulary lists containing regicide
Banned Book Club
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Children of Virtue and Vengeance
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A Storm of Swords
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Commoner Katherine Worsley, 28, a descendant of Regicide Oliver Cromwell, seemed hardly a likely captor, yet for four years, the couple sporadically courted.
From Time Magazine Archive
The king fully sympathised with them, and their sentiments were stimulated and expressed by Burke, whose first Letter on a Regicide Peace appeared in the autumn.
From The Political History of England - Vol. X. The History of England from the Accession of George III to the close of Pitt's first Administration by Poole, Reginald Lane
Probably none of his writings are so familiar to the general public as those which this crisis produced, such as the 'Thoughts on the French Revolution' and the 'Letters on a Regicide Peace.'
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 by Warner, Charles Dudley
Burke at the notion of negotiation flamed out in the Letters on a Regicide Peace, in some respects the most splendid of all his compositions.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
Tobias, armed with the Regicide, a tragedy—a provision precisely similar to that with which Dr. Johnson had started, just before—came up to London.
From Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by Saintsbury, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
