/may"hem, may"euhm/ , n.
1. Law. the crime of willfully inflicting a bodily injury on another so as to make the victim less capable of self-defense or, under modern statutes, so as to cripple or mutilate the victim.
2. random or deliberate violence or damage.
3. a state of rowdy disorder: Antagonisms between the various factions at the meeting finally boiled over, and mayhem ensued.
[ 1350-1400; ME maheym, maim mahe ( i ) m, mahaim meidem gelding, ON meitha to injure. See MAIM ]