Suicide

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Suicide \Su"i*cide\, n. [L. sui of one's self (akin to suus
     one's own) + caedere to slay, to kill. Cf. {So}, adv.,
     {Homicide}.]
     1. The act of taking one's own life voluntary and
        intentionally; self-murder; specifically (Law), the
        felonious killing of one's self; the deliberate and


        intentional destruction of one's own life by a person of
        years of discretion and of sound mind.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. One guilty of self-murder; a felo-de-se.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Ruin of one's own interests. "Intestine war, which may be
        justly called political suicide." --V. Knox.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  suicide
       n 1: the act of killing yourself; "it is a crime to commit
            suicide" [syn: {self-destruction}, {self-annihilation}]
       2: a person who kills himself intentionally [syn: {felo-de-se}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  32 Moby Thesaurus words for "suicide":
     aborticide, car of Jagannath, disembowelment, felo-de-se,
     fratricide, fungicide, genocide, germicide, hara-kiri, herbicide,
     homicide, infanticide, insecticide, mass suicide, matricide,
     microbicide, parricide, patricide, pesticide, regicide,
     ritual suicide, rodenticide, self-destruction, self-immolation,
     self-murder, self-sacrifice, seppuku, sororicide, suttee,
     sutteeism, uxoricide, vermicide
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SUICIDE, crimes, med. jur. The act of malicious self-murder; felo de se. 
  (q.v.) 3 Man. Gran. & Scott, 437, 457, 458; 1 Hale, P. C.. 441. But it has 
  been decided in England that where a man's life was insured, and the policy 
  contained a proviso that "every policy effected by a person on his or her 
  own life should be void, if such person should commit suicide, or die by 
  duelling or the hands of justice," the terms of the condition included all 
  acts of voluntary self-destruction, whether the insured at the time such act 
  was committed, was or was not a moral responsible agent. 3 Man. Gr. & Scott, 
  437. In New York it has been held, that an insane person cannot commit 
  suicide, because. such person has no will. 4 Hill' 3 R. 75. 
       2. It is not punishable it is believed in any of the United States, as 
  the unfortunate object of this offence is beyond the reach of human 
  tribunals, and to deprive his family of the property he leaves would be 
  unjust. 
       3. In cases of sudden death, it is of great consequence to ascertain, 
  on finding the body, whether the deceased has been murdered, died suddenly 
  of a natural death, or whether he has committed suicide. By a careful 
  examination of the position of the body, and of the circumstances attending 
  it, it can be generally ascertained whether the deceased committed suicide, 
  was murdered, or died a natural death. But there are sometimes cases of 
  suicide which can scarcely be distinguished from those of murder. A case of 
  suicide is mentioned by Doctor Devergie, (Annales d'Hygiene, transcribed by 
  Trebuchet, Jurisprudence de la Medecine, p. 40,) which bears a striking 
  analogy to a murder. The individual went to the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, 
  near Paris, and with a razor inflicted a wound on himself immediately below 
  the oshyoide; the first blow penetrated eleven lines in depth; a second, in 
  the wound made by the first, pushed the instrument to the depth of twenty-
  one lines; a third extended as far as the posterior of the pharynx, cutting 
  the muscles which attached the tongue to the oshyoide, and made a wound of 
  two inches in depth. Imagine an enormous wound, immediately under the chin, 
  two inches in depth, and three inches and three lines in width, and a foot 
  in circumference; and then judge whether such wound could not be easily 
  mistaken as having been made by a stranger, and not by the deceased. Vide 
  Death, and 1 Briand, Med. Leg. 2e partie, c. 1, art. 6.