different between ambush vs murder

English

Etymology

From Middle English enbuschen, from Old French enbuscier, anbuchier (verb) (whence Middle French embusche (noun)), from Old French en- + Vulgar Latin boscus (“wood”), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.

Pronunciation

• (General Australian, US, UK) IPA^(key): /?æm.b??/

Noun

ambush (plural ambushes)

1. The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.
2. An attack launched from a concealed position.
3. The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

ambush (third-person singular simple present ambushes, present participle ambushing, simple past and past participle ambushed)

1. (transitive) To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.
   • 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour

     By ambush'd men behind their temple laid / We have the king of Mexico betray'd.

2. (transitive) To attack by ambush; to waylay.

Derived terms

• ambushable

Translations

Further reading

• ambush at OneLook Dictionary Search
• ambush in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Alternative forms

• murther (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-Germanic *murþr? (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mr?tro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr?- (“to die”). Akin to Gothic ???????????????????????? (maurþr, “murder”), Old High German mord (“murder”), Old Norse morð (“murder”), Old English myrþrian (“to murder”) and morþ.

The -d- in the Middle English form may have been influenced in part by Anglo-Norman murdre, from Medieval Latin murdrum from Old French murdre, from Frankish *murþra (“murder”), from the same Germanic root, though this may also have been wholly the result of internal development (compare burden, from burthen).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??d?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?.d?/
• Hyphenation: mur?der
• Rhymes: -??(?)d?(?)

Noun

murder (countable and uncountable, plural murders)

1. (uncountable) The crime of deliberately killing another person without justification.
2. (countable) The act of deliberate killing of another person or other being without justification, especially with malice aforethought.
   • 1984, Humphrey Carpenter, Mari Prichard, The Oxford companion to children's literature, page 275:

     It may be guessed, indeed, that this was the original form of the story, the fairy being the addition of those who considered Jack's thefts from (and murder of) the giant to be scarcely justified without her.
3. (uncountable, law, in jurisdictions which use the felony murder rule) The commission of an act which abets the commission of a crime the commission of which causes the death of a human.
4. (uncountable, used as a predicative noun) Something terrible to endure.

5. (countable, collective) A group of crows; the collective noun for crows.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to “murder”: atrocious, attempted, brutal, cold-blooded, double, heinous, horrible, premeditated, triple, terrible, unsolved.

Synonyms

• (act of deliberate killing): homicide, manslaughter, assassination
• (group of crows): flock

Related terms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

murder (third-person singular simple present murders, present participle murdering, simple past and past participle murdered)

1. To deliberately kill (a person or persons) without justification, especially with malice aforethought.
2. (transitive, sports, figuratively, colloquial, hyperbolic) To defeat decisively.

3. (figuratively, colloquial, hyperbolic) To kick someone's ass or chew someone out (used to express one’s anger at somebody).

4. To botch or mangle.
5. (figuratively, colloquial, Britain) To devour, ravish.

Synonyms

• (deliberately kill): assassinate, kill, massacre, slaughter
• (defeat decisively): thrash, trounce, wipe the floor with
• (express one’s anger at): kill

Derived terms

• murder one's darlings

Translations

Anagrams

• murred, redrum

Cebuano

Etymology

From English murder, from Middle English murder, murdre, mourdre, alteration of earlier murthre (“murder”) (see murther), from Old English morþor (“secret slaying, unlawful killing”) and Old English myrþra (“murder, homicide”), both from Proto-Germanic *murþr? (“death, killing, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *mrtro- (“killing”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer-, *mor-, *mr- (“to die”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: mur?der

Verb

murder

1. to murder; to deliberately kill
2. (slang) to mispronounce or misspell a person's name

Noun

murder

1. an act of deliberate killing of another being, especially a human
2. the crime of deliberate killing of another human