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mayhem

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Legal, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
mayhem (mā`hĕm, mā`əm), in common law common law, system of law that prevails in England and in countries colonized by England. The name is derived from the medieval theory that the law administered by the king's courts represented the common custom of the realm, as opposed to the custom of local
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, the crime of willfully injuring a person so as to diminish his or her capacity for self-defense. Cutting off an arm or leg would thus be mayhem, while such a battery battery, in criminal and tort law, the unpermitted touching of any part of the person of another, or of anything worn, carried by, or intimately associated at that moment (as a chair being sat on) with another.
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 as cutting off an ear would not. Under modern statutes, however, mayhem (or maiming) is a form of aggravated battery that leads to mutilation (such as loss of an ear), disfigurement, or serious permanent injury; jurisdictions vary in requiring specific intent to cause the injury or, more broadly, wanton behavior leading to it.

mayhem

Crime of willfully and permanently crippling, mutilating, or disfiguring any part of another's body. Some jurisdictions do not distinguish between mayhem and other types of battery. Japanese law treats all batteries similarly; Indian law divides bodily harms into “hurts” and “grievous hurts.” In most U.S. states mayhem is encompassed by assault and aggravated assault.


mayhem, maihem
Law the wilful and unlawful infliction of injury upon a person, esp (formerly) the injuring or removing of a limb rendering him less capable of defending himself against attack


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Philander, in icy tones, "the time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in the mantle of virtue.
 
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