suicide

Etymology

First attested in Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (1643) in sense 1, ostensibly from New Latin suicidium, from suī (genitive reflexive pronoun) + -cīdium (“act of killing or murder”), but often believed to have originated in English before entering Latin. Displaced native Middle English seolf-cwale from Old English selfcwalu (literally “self-slaughter”), after which suicide may have been modelled, or calqued (compare manuscript). Sense 3 is perhaps by analogy with words like homicide, patricide (see -cide), or, although unlikely, from Medieval Latin suicida; see the Etymology section at suicidium.

noun

1. (uncountable) Intentional killing of oneself.
   As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions
   The cowardice of suicide was abhorrent to him. 1904, Harold MacGrath, chapter 22, in The Man On The Box
   I realize and I can see / That suicide is painless / It brings on many changes / And I can take or leave it if I please 1970, “Suicide Is Painless”, Mike Altman (lyrics), Johnny Mandel (music)
   Other global taboos, such as sex and suicide, manifest themselves widely online, with websites offering suicide guides and Hot XXX Action seconds away at the click of a button. […] April 19, 2012, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian
2. (countable) A particular instance of a person intentionally killing themself, or of multiple people doing so.
   There had been half a dozen mysterious suicides which had been investigated by Scotland Yard. 1919, Edgar Wallace, chapter 14, in The Secret House
   In this way the Heaven's Gate community were not only escaping the threat of 'global destruction', they were hurling themselves directly into 'the lap of God', using their suicide as a way of 'bridging the chasm' between an earthly world which had no future and 'a thousand years of unmitigated peace'. 1999, Philip H. Melling, Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity and Militant Religion, Edinburgh University Press, page 192
3. (countable) A person who has intentionally killed themself.
4. (figurative) An action that could cause the literal or figurative death of a person or organization, although death is not the aim of the action.
   political suicide
   […] I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan. Feb 9 1959, Everett Dirksen, Congressional Record, archived from the original on 2009-01-16, page 2100
   "Mr. Glinn," said Britton, "it's suicide to take a huge ship like this past the Ice Limit. Especially in this weather." 2000, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, The Ice Limit
   […] it's suicide to change jobs in mid-career. 2004, Robert D. Lock, Job Search: Career Planning Guide, page 24
   Miranda: No good. Both routes are blocked. See these doors? The only way past is to get someone to open them from the other side. Shepard: It's not a fortress; there's got to be something. Here, maybe we can send someone in through this ventilation shaft. Jacob: Practically a suicide mission. I volunteer. Miranda: I appreciate the thought, Jacob, but you couldn't shut down the security systems in time. We need to send a tech expert. 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2
   Italian communism and those on its left had committed political suicide. 2013-08-21, Tariq Ali, “A suicide note to Trotsky that displayed political passions we should not forget”, in The Guardian
   Amidst all the chaos, Großer Kurfürst slows up and strikes her colors, her crew having had enough, and have overpowered the officers - willing to fight, but not willing to commit suicide. 17 October 2018, Drachinifel, 25:13 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04
5. (countable, US, slang) A beverage combining all available flavors at a soda fountain.
   You could sit at a corner and order your Suicide, and one of two twin brothers who worked there would hold an old-fashioned soda glass, a heavy tall V-shaped one with a round foot at the bottom, and go down the line with one shot of everything—cherry, lemon, Coke, and chocolate syrups—before adding soda water. 1994, Christopher Buckley, Cruising State: Growing Up in Southern California, University of Nevada Press, page 34
   Using Coca-Cola as a base, a suicide called for the addition of every other flavor available. 2000, Mark Pendergrast, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Basic Books, page 15
6. A diabolo trick where one of the sticks is released and allowed to rotate 360° round the diabolo until it is caught by the hand that released it.
7. (countable) A run comprising a series of sprints of increasing lengths, each followed immediately by a return to the start, with no pause between one sprint and the next.
   The coach makes us run suicides at the end of each basketball practice.
8. A children's game of throwing a ball against a wall and at other players, who are eliminated by being struck.
9. (attributive) Pertaining to a suicide bombing.
   suicide belt
   suicide vest

verb

1. (intransitive) To kill oneself intentionally.
   Her husband suicided three years ago. Just like a man! 1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 11, in Anne's House of Dreams
   Seems a lady poet suicided at Verringer's ranch in Sepulveda canyon one time. 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 136
2. (transitive) To kill (someone) and make their death appear to have been a suicide rather than a homicide (now especially as part of a conspiracy).
   Have bought The Shanghai Chopsticks. Proprietor at first refused to sell, but when I ordered the boiling oil he became more reasonable. Editor reports that circulation is not what it ought to be. […] Will publish proclaimation, "Any person found not in possession of The Shanghai Chopsticks (current number) will be suicided." October 29 1898, Punch, or the London charivari, page 196
   Even if he did get charged, he would be suicided long before he could involve one of the city's most important politicians in the scam. 2011, Tobias Jones, White Death, page 273
   Gelli also expressed skepticism about Calvi's ability to climb out over the scaffolding in his leather-soled city shoes. 'I think they suicided him. 2013-09-23, Philip Willan, The Vatican at War: From Blackfriars Bridge to Buenos Aires, iUniverse, page 257
3. To self-destruct.
   At the conclusion of each wind, the movement of the driver's control lever back to the neutral position, and consequently the movement of the Ward Leonard controller back to its neutral position, firstly opens the directional contacts which isolate the generator field from the Ward Leonard exciter and, secondly, operates contactors which eliminate the effect of the residual field by suiciding the generator field as outlined above. 1957, The Institute of Mineral Industries, Proceedings - Issues 181-182, page 315
   The problem is that the degradation of our common space requires a complete social transformation, because it's a part of Galician society's general degradation, a society demographically declining — demographically suiciding, as it were — with inactive employers and intellectual elites comfortably disconnected from real life; 2006, Ugliness?: Destroying a Country
   Here in America we just called them survivors, after the Chinese suicided their psychotic society in the seventies, and destroyed most of urban America in the process. 2010, Martin H. Greenberg, The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse, page 189