Meanings
- humorousuncountableThe situation where, in order to create storylines for a detective drama, the protagonist encounters far more murders than is plausible.
If an author cannot figure out some credible way to introduce murder into an amateur sleuth's life, the writer risks creating a detective who suffers from the dreaded Cabot Cove syndrome […]
2012, John Charles, Candace Clark, Joanne Hamilton-Selway, The Readers' Advisory Guide to Mystery, page 20
Origin
Named from the fictional setting of the long-running US television series Murder, She Wrote.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Cabot Cove syndrome. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cabot%20Cove%20syndrome
“Cabot Cove syndrome.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cabot%20Cove%20syndrome. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Cabot Cove syndrome,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cabot%20Cove%20syndrome.
Source: Cabot Cove syndrome on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.