murder will out
English
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.
Proverb
- a murderer will always be discovered.
- (idiomatic) secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever.
Translations
proverb
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References
- “murder will out” in E. D. Hirsch Jr., Joseph F. Kett, James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd rev. and updated edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, →ISBN; reproduced on Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “murder” in Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd rev. and updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN; reproduced on Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- "English Legal Proverbs", Donald F. Bond, PMLA, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Dec., 1936), pp. 927.
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