Definition

Noun: 1. Money paid to a hired killer: Payment made to someone to commit murder. 2. A reward for information about a murderer: Money offered for information leading to the arrest or conviction of a killer. 3. Compensation paid to the family of a murdered person: Money paid, often as a fine or restitution, to the relatives of someone who has been killed.

Usage Examples

• The gangster was arrested for offering to have his rival eliminated.
• The police announced a substantial sum of for any tip that could solve the case.
• In some historical legal systems, the perpetrator's family had to pay to the victim's family.

Advanced Usage

• The term is often used figuratively to describe profit or gain that comes from suffering, tragedy, or unethical actions.
  • Critics accused the company of making blood money from the conflict.

Variants and Related Words

• Bloodguilt (noun): The state of being guilty of murder or bloodshed.
• Wergild (noun): A historical term, particularly in Old English and Germanic law, meaning the price set upon a person's life, paid as compensation by a murderer to the family of the victim; a specific type of blood money.

Synonyms

• Hit money (specifically for payment to a killer).
• Reward (specifically for information).
• Weregild (historical synonym for compensation).
• Reparation (a more general term for making amends).

Idioms and Phrases

• To have blood money on one's hands: To be responsible for profiting from death or suffering.
  • He felt he had blood money on his hands after inheriting the fortune from his grandfather's dubious business.

Noun

1. paid to a hired murderer
2. a reward for information about a murderer
3. compensation paid to the family of a murdered person