suicide

[soo-uh-sahyd]

See more synonyms for suicide on Thesaurus.com

noun

the intentional taking of one's own life.
destruction of one's own interests or prospects: Buying that house was financial suicide.
a person who intentionally takes his or her own life.

verb (used without object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

to commit suicide.

verb (used with object), su·i·cid·ed, su·i·cid·ing.

to kill (oneself).

Origin of suicide

1645–55; < New Latin suīcīdium, -cīda, equivalent to Latin suī of oneself, genitive singular of reflexive pronunciation + -cīdium, -cīda -cide

Related formsan·ti·su·i·cide, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for suicide

hara-kiri, self-destruction, self-immolation, seppuku

Examples from the Web for suicide

Contemporary Examples of suicide

The Samaritan guidelines are written around the assumption that suicide is a purely irrational act, an act spurred by illness.
Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism
Arthur Chu
January 3, 2015
The sad fact is that more than 41 percent of trans people admit making at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime.
Dear Leelah, We Will Fight On For You: A Letter to a Dead Trans Teen
Parker Molloy
January 1, 2015
One is reported to have blown himself up, along with many victims, but detonating a suicide vest.
Taliban: We Slaughtered 100+ Kids Because Their Parents Helped America
Sami Yousafzai
December 16, 2014
What is the suicide rate of Christian teens relative to transgender ones?
Do LGBTs Owe Christians an Olive Branch? Try The Other Way Around
Jay Michaelson
December 14, 2014
Not long after, a 10-year-old girl wearing a suicide belt was arrested.
The New Face of Boko Haram’s Terror: Teen Girls
Nina Strochlic
December 13, 2014

Historical Examples of suicide

One can only motive and explain this suicide by self-immolating love.
The Man Shakespeare
Frank Harris
What is to be said about the folly and cowardice of the suicide's act?
An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism
Joseph Stump
This is so not merely in the sense of insanity but of suicide.
Alarms and Discursions
G. K. Chesterton
In which case I fancy we may look for an attempt at suicide.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon
Didn't Dr Donne, as good a man as any, I presume, argue on the part of the suicide?'
Wilfrid Cumbermede
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for suicide

suicide

noun

the act or an instance of killing oneself intentionally
the self-inflicted ruin of one's own prospects or interestsa merger would be financial suicide
a person who kills himself intentionally
(modifier) reckless; extremely dangerousa suicide mission
(modifier) (of an action) undertaken or (of a person) undertaking an action in the knowledge that it will result in the death of the person performing it in order that maximum damage may be inflicted on an enemya suicide attack; suicide bomber

Word Origin for suicide

C17: from New Latin suīcīdium, from Latin suī of oneself + -cīdium, from caedere to kill

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suicide

"deliberate killing of oneself," 1650s, from Modern Latin suicidium "suicide," from Latin sui "of oneself" (genitive of se "self"), from PIE *s(u)w-o- "one's own," from root *s(w)e- (see idiom) + -cidium "a killing" (see -cide). Probably an English coinage; much maligned by Latin purists because it "may as well seem to participate of sus, a sow, as of the pronoun sui" [Phillips]. The meaning "person who kills himself deliberately" is from 1728. In Anglo-Latin, the term for "one who commits suicide" was felo-de-se, literally "one guilty concerning himself."

November, the suicide season. [Samuel Foote, "The Bankrupt," 1773]

In England, suicides were legally criminal if sane, but not if judged to have been mentally deranged. The criminal ones were given degrading burial in roadways until 1823. Suicide blonde first attested 1942. Baseball suicide squeeze is attested from 1955.

suicide in Medicine

suicide

[sōō′ĭ-sīd′]

The act or an instance of intentionally killing oneself.
One who commits suicide.