revenge killing
Payback through homicide
A revenge killing is a murder committed to avenge a prior wrong, typically the killing of a family member or close associate.
The term often appears in contexts of gang violence, blood feuds, or tribal conflicts where cycles of retaliation perpetuate themselves: Police suspect the shooting was a revenge killing for last month's murder.
Distinguished from legal execution or self-defense by its extrajudicial, retaliatory nature.
- vendettaProlonged retaliatory conflict
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- blood feudInherited cycle of retribution
- cycle of violenceRecurring pattern of abuse
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
retribution · vigilante · murder · vengeance · grudge · settling the score · assassin · hit list · feud · settling scores · eye for an eye · hitman · blood money · bloodshed · nemesis · justice · cold-blooded · execution
- revengeretaliation, payback, vengeance, vendetta, blood feud
- violent crimehomicide, stabbing, shooting, robbery, mugging
- Bushidobushido, samurai code, warrior code, honor code, samurai ethics
- literary deathdeath scene, deathbed, dying, corpse, funeral
- Warfare Customswar cry, battle cry, war drums, war drum, war chant
- violenceviolence, physical attack, brutality, physical violence, aggression
revenge killingmercy killing
Painless death for suffering
thrill killing · spree killing · unprovoked attack · euthanasia · accidental killing
revenge killingforgiveness
Releasing resentment toward offenders
mercy · pardon · reconciliation · life-saving · absolution
revenge killingpeacemaking
Resolving conflicts through negotiation
reconciliation · de-escalation · truce · ceasefire · peace accord
revenge, killing, revenges, revenged, revenging, revengeful, revenger, avenge, avenged