Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to exasperate, to infuriate, e.g. that just murders me.

c.1617		Fletcher Chances IV iii: This Musick murders me.
1837		‘Terence O’Shaughnessy’ in Bentley’s Misc. Jan. 42: Oh, Jasus! [...] I’m murdered!
1887		H. Frederic Seth’s Brother’s Wife 309: My own thoughts murder me!
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 174: I hardly know myself what Mr. Seton’s got. You might almost as well ask him. I get so moidered with it all.

2. (orig. US, also slaughter) to consume or desire, greedily and enthusiastically, e.g. I could murder a roast duck noodle soup.

1841		D. Boucicault London Assurance Act I: Say no more, I’m your man. Wait till you see how I’ll murder your preserves.
1858		W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room II ii: How much wine do you suppose myself and three jolly fellows murdered last night?
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Apr. 3/2 : Splendid were the two glasses of ale they murdered.
[1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 24/4: Innocent roasts of beef were ruthlessly slaughtered and Captain Smith decapitated a suckling-pig with one sweeping cut of his remorseless sword. After the second keg of rum was murdered, the ferocious warriors asked to me marched straight to Moscow or Heret].
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 22 Mar. 12/2: They Say [...] That Tommy H, the sport, murdered a zac [...] Don’t be extravagant, Tommy!
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 1 May 4/3: Gus G ought to slaughter 9d for a hair cut.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1970) 24: That’s all some people is good for – set ’round and lie and murder groceries.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up 125: He would crouch over his plate [...] and glare down at the harmless egg and inoffensive bacon enunciating, as though it were part of some barbarous and sadistic ritual, the words, ‘I’ll murder it’.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 189: I couldn’t half murder a drink.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 96: I’m starting to get a bit on the peckish side. I reckon I’ll murder a steak [...] when we’re finished.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 277: He’ll be in an English pub now, murdering an English pint.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 226: I could murder a custard cream.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 186: Got any gear? [...] I could murder a line.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘I could murder a drink’.

3. (orig. US) to defeat totally or conclusively, esp. at a game or sport; to ruin.

1858		‘A. Pendragon’ Queen of the South 110: He said that you murdered your English; that you choked it with slang expressions.
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 141: I says Let me go up there because I can murder this bird.
1927		Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 27 May 6/1: American League pitchers feared Joe Harris [...] How he can murder a curve ball.
1936		Monks & Finklehoffe Brother Rat II ii: [baseball] If you give him a high one, he’ll murder it.
1943		T. Thursday ‘Romeo’s Juliet’ in Sports Fiction Fall 🌐 You would think he would be a sport and forget that I moidered him in two fights in the Garden.
1957		M. Avallone ‘Power the Ball Platewards’ in Super Sports 🌐 The lousiest hitter alive can murder a pitch like that.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 104: I got a Jolson finish. I’ll murder them.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 27: I’m gonna murder that big punk.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 58: Get in there Barry and murder ’im!
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 212: I murdered him.

4. (US) to cause pain.

1973

D. Ponicsan Cinderella Liberty 10: His ass is murdering him.