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mayhem

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 3 July 2026

Etymology

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    The noun is derived from Late Middle English mayehem, maihem, a late form of maym, maim (“disfigurement, injury, mutilation; disfigured person”) (whence modern English maim (noun)),[1][2] from Anglo-Norman mahaim, mahainne (“mutilation”), and Old French mehaing, meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”).

    The verb is partly:[3]

    The etymology of the Old French words is uncertain;[5] they are possibly from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to damage; to hurt; to change; to exchange”) (compare Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”); Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”); Old Norse meiða (“to injure”)),[6] from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change; to exchange; etc.”), possibly from *mey- (“to change; to exchange”). If so, the English word is a doublet of mad.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    mayhem (usually uncountable, plural mayhems)

    2. (criminal law)
      1. (UK, historical, uncountable) The criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.
        to commit mayhem
        • 1765, William Blackstone, “Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 126:
          A man's limbs, (by vvhich for the preſent vve only underſtand thoſe members vvhich may be uſeful to him in fight, and the loſs of vvhich only amounts to mayhem by the common lavv) are alſo the gift of the vviſe creator; to enable man to protect himſelf from external injuries in a ſtate of nature. […] [W]hatever is done by a man, to ſave either life or member, is looked upon as done upon the higheſt neceſſity and compulſion. Therefore if a man through fear of death or mayhem is prevailed upon to execute a deed, or do any other legal act; theſe, though accompanied vvith all other the requiſite ſolemnities, are totally void in lavv, […]
      2. (by extension, US, uncountable) The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
        • 1906, Arthur [Cheney] Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in The Prisoner at the Bar: Sidelights on the Administration of Criminal Justice, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 316:
          There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"—biting off another man's finger. The defendant's counsel secured adjournment after adjournment—no one knew why. […] He [the defendant] had not a tooth in his head. The delay had been advantageously employed.
    3. (figurative)
      1. (uncountable) Often preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an instance of this.
        Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disorder, Thesaurus:commotion
        In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
        What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
        • 1981 (date recorded), Ian Anderson, “Mayhem, Maybe”, in 20 Years of Jethro Tull [Disc 2: Flawed Gems and Other Sides of Tull], performed by Jethro Tull, New York, N.Y.: Chrysalis Records, published 21 June 1988, →OCLC:
          We terrified the mare and foal. / The fox stood still and far too bold. / So we strung him up, brush neatly folded— / Mayhem, maybe.
        • 1981 May 27, William G. Tucker, “George, Keynes, Reagan, rabbit and hat”, in The New York Times (A section)‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 December 2024, page A27:
          In the 1870's, a young newspaper editor named Henry George walked the streets of San Francisco lamenting the paradoxical economic mayhem that lay all around him.
        • 1992 May 19 (date delivered), Dan Quayle, “[Appendix: Selected Speeches] Address to the Commonwealth Club of California, May 19, 1992 (on Family Values)”, in Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins Publishers, published 1994, →ISBN, page 381:
          Yes, I can understand how people were shocked and outraged by the verdict in the Rodney King trial. But, my friends, there is simply no excuse for the mayhem that followed.
        • 2014, Emma Trevayne, “Lorcan, Banished”, in Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 262:
          Jack lifted the binoculars to his eyes, and it was difficult not to laugh at the utter mayhem. Faeries ripped plumes from helmets; soldiers found their pistols dangled just out of reach.
        • 2023 August 14, Kari Paul, “Robotaxi breakdowns cause mayhem in San Francisco days after expansion vote”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 September 2025:
          On Friday, amid increased traffic from the Outside Lands music festival, a number of self-driving cards seemed to glitch. One TikTok user recorded a Cruise vehicle causing "mayhem" outside of the festival where it was stuck at an angle in the middle of the street.
        • 2023 December 31, Matthew Weaver, “‘Absolute mayhem’: Eurostar passengers tell of stress and tears”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 July 2025:
          Andrew and Fiona Eyre, both 52, from Sheffield, had been looking forward to their trip to Paris since booking it in September, but their train was also cancelled. "It was absolute mayhem and the lack of communication was just disgusting," Andrew said.
        • 2026 April 26, Linda Feldmann, “After the gunfire: Moments of grace at White House correspondents’ dinner”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎[4], Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 April 2026:
          […] I heard a loud crashing noise, like a big tray of dinner plates hitting the floor. Then shouts of "get down" and "shots fired," as the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner descended into mayhem.
      2. (originally US, uncountable) Violent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury on a person or thing.
        The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
        • 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “[Appendix.] C. Concerning a Frightful Assassination that was never Consummated.”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 581:
          This same man, after failing through intimidation to elicit from me the names of our editorial contributors, against giving which he knew me to be pledged, beat himself weary upon me with a raw hide, I not resisting, and then pantingly threatened me with permanent disfiguring mayhem, if ever again I should introduce his name into print, […]
        • 1908 February 19, Jack London, “Slaves of the Machine”, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 63:
          "Tell me," I said, "when one surrenders his personal feelings to his professional feelings, may not the action be defined as a sort of spiritual mayhem?"
        • 1916 September 16 – November 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, 1st British edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published May 1918, →OCLC, page 70:
          Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person.

    Alternative forms

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    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Verb

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    mayhem (third-person singular simple present mayhems, present participle mayheming, simple past and past participle mayhemed) (transitive, archaic)

    1. (law) To commit the criminal offence of mayhem (noun sense 1) on (someone); to maim.
      • 1528, Thomas More, “A Dialogue Concernynge Heresyes & Matters of Religion […]. Chapter XIV.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, book IV, page 277, column 2:
        It is a gentle holineſſe […] to riſe vp in routes and fight againſt chriſten men, and deſtroy […] many a good religious houſe, ſpoyled, meyhemed, ⁊ ſlaine many a good vertuous man, robbed, polluted, and pulled downe manye a goodly church of Chriſt.
      • 1581, William Lambard[e], “Of the Breach of the Peace without a Multitude, against the Person, and How It may be Stayed, or Punished by one Iustice of Peace out of the Sessions”, in Eirenarcha: Or Of the Office of the Iustices of Peace, […], London: […] Ra[lph] Newbery, and H[enry] Bynneman, by the ass[igns] of Ri[chard] Tottel & Chr[istopher] Bar[ker], →OCLC, 1st booke (What Iustices of the Peace bee: And Why Called Iustices), pages 133–134:
        The breache of the Peace that may be practiſed againſt the perſon, climbeth to the deſtruction of the perſon, by ſundry degrees: as by Threates, Affray or aſſault, and violent and malicious ſtriking, and beating, vvounding, mayheming and killing.
        A noun use.
      • 1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Villenage”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 2, chapter 11, section 194, folio 127, recto:
        Note the life and members of euery ſubiect are vnder the ſafegard and protection of the King, […] to the end that they may ſerue the King and their Countrie when occaſion ſhall be offered. Nay, the Lord of the Uilleine for the cauſe aforeſaid cannot mayheme the Uilleine, but the King ſhall puniſh him for mayinhing [maiming] of his ſubiect (for that hereby hee hath diſabled him to doe the King Seruice) by fine, ranſome, and impriſonment vntill the fine and ranſome bee paid.
    2. (figurative) To violently inflict injury on (someone); to injure, to wound.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:harm
      • 1879, [Albion Winegar Tourgée], “‘Light Shineth in Darkness’”, in A Fool‘s Errand. […], New York, N.Y.: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, →OCLC, page 287:
        The law had regarded them [black people] as mere chattels; and it had passed into a proverb in the nation, that they had "no rights which white men were bound to respect." To buy, to sell, to task, to whip, to mayhem this race at will, had been from immemorial days a right which the now subjugated people [the Confederate States of America] had claimed and exercised, and which had been conceded and admitted in their previous union with their conquerors [the Union].
      • 1942 April 20, “Nostalgia on Jacobs Beach: Fight Club’s End Raises the Ghosts of Famous Bygone Battles”, in Newsweek, volume XIX, number 16, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 56, column 2:
        Outside the enclosures a parade of pugs went solemnly through their exercises—skipping rope, mayheming the punching bags, pawing the air at invisible opponents.

    Translations

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    References

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    1. ^ “maim(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    2. ^ “mayhem, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026.
    3. ^ “mayhem, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026.
    4. ^ “maimen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
    5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 “maim, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2026; “maim, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
    6. ^ Philip Babcock, ed., Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, s.v. "mayhem" (Springfield, Mass: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1993.

    Further reading

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