"murder will out" meaning in English

See murder will out in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: The phrase murder will out, literally "murder will become public", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} murder will out
  1. A murderer will always be discovered.
    Sense id: en-murder_will_out-en-proverb-AahPOfhU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48 Disambiguation of English proverbs: 47 53
  2. (idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Murder
    Sense id: en-murder_will_out-en-proverb-4JJiIxT2 Disambiguation of Murder: 41 59 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48 Disambiguation of English proverbs: 47 53
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: truth will out Translations (proverb): 紙包不住火 (Chinese Mandarin), 天网恢恢,疏而不漏 (tiānwǎnghuīhuī, shū'érbùlòu) (Chinese Mandarin), ennen pitkää totuus paljastuu (Finnish), Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag (German), סוף גנב לתליה (Hebrew), רצח סופו שיתגלה (Hebrew), D'Sonn bréngt et un d'Liicht (Luxembourgish)
Disambiguation of 'proverb': 48 52

Download JSON data for murder will out meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "The phrase murder will out, literally \"murder will become public\", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "murder will out",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "55 45",
      "word": "truth will out"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A murderer will always be discovered."
      ],
      "id": "en-murder_will_out-en-proverb-AahPOfhU",
      "links": [
        [
          "murderer",
          "murderer"
        ],
        [
          "discover",
          "discover"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "52 48",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "41 59",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Murder",
          "orig": "en:Murder",
          "parents": [
            "Crime",
            "Death",
            "Violence",
            "Criminal law",
            "Society",
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Law",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Nature",
            "Justice",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever."
      ],
      "id": "en-murder_will_out-en-proverb-4JJiIxT2",
      "links": [
        [
          "Secret",
          "secret"
        ],
        [
          "hidden",
          "hidden"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "expose",
          "expose"
        ],
        [
          "discover",
          "discover"
        ],
        [
          "forever",
          "forever"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "紙包不住火"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "纸包不住火 (zhǐ bāo bùzhù huǒ, literally “fire cannot be wrapped up in paper”)",
      "sense": "proverb"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "tiānwǎnghuīhuī, shū'érbùlòu",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "天网恢恢,疏而不漏"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "ennen pitkää totuus paljastuu"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "סוף גנב לתליה"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "רצח סופו שיתגלה"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "lb",
      "lang": "Luxembourgish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "D'Sonn bréngt et un d'Liicht"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "48 52",
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "note": "ши́ла в мешке́ не утаи́шь (šíla v mešké ne utaíšʹ, literally “you can't hide an awl in a sack”)",
      "sense": "proverb"
    }
  ],
  "word": "murder will out"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English proverbs",
    "en:Murder"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The phrase murder will out, literally \"murder will become public\", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "murder will out",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "truth will out"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A murderer will always be discovered."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "murderer",
          "murderer"
        ],
        [
          "discover",
          "discover"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Secret",
          "secret"
        ],
        [
          "hidden",
          "hidden"
        ],
        [
          "crime",
          "crime"
        ],
        [
          "expose",
          "expose"
        ],
        [
          "discover",
          "discover"
        ],
        [
          "forever",
          "forever"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "紙包不住火"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "note": "纸包不住火 (zhǐ bāo bùzhù huǒ, literally “fire cannot be wrapped up in paper”)",
      "sense": "proverb"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "tiānwǎnghuīhuī, shū'érbùlòu",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "天网恢恢,疏而不漏"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "ennen pitkää totuus paljastuu"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "סוף גנב לתליה"
    },
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "רצח סופו שיתגלה"
    },
    {
      "code": "lb",
      "lang": "Luxembourgish",
      "sense": "proverb",
      "word": "D'Sonn bréngt et un d'Liicht"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "note": "ши́ла в мешке́ не утаи́шь (šíla v mešké ne utaíšʹ, literally “you can't hide an awl in a sack”)",
      "sense": "proverb"
    }
  ],
  "word": "murder will out"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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