amok

comparative more amok · superlative most amok · alternative amuck · alternative amock

1. Out of control, especially when armed and dangerous.
2. In a frenzy of violence, or on a killing spree; berserk.

   It is true, I […] might have run “amok” against society; but I preferred that society should run “amok” against me, it being the desperate party.

   1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Village”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 186

plural amoks · alternative amuck · alternative amock

1. One who runs amok; in Malay and Moro/Philippine culture, one who attempts to kill many others, especially expecting that they will be killed themselves.

   One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us that there was an "Amok" in the village--in other words, that a man was "running a muck."

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 272

2. The act of running amok.

   Among the ancients these would have been looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said--they made "amok."

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 273

   3 more examples

   On the morning of the amok this person met him, and asked him to work at his boat “He replied that he could not, he was very much afflicted.”[…]The amok took place on the 8th, the trial on the 13th, and the execution on the 15th July,—all within eight days.

   1849, “Malay Amoks Referred to Mahomedanism”, in J. R. Logan, editor, The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, volume III, Singapore: […] G. M. Frederick, “Sentence of death upon a Malay convicted of running amok”, page 461

   The late assassinations of Lord Mayo and Chief Justice Norman, though not committed by Malays, would be called “amoks.”[…]In the case of the Lieutenant-Governor of Singapore, his being “amoked” appears to have been a mere chance collision, the intended victim having been another native by whom the “amoker” had been imprisoned. The real cause of the “amok” was the imprisonment—an insult to a descendant of the Prophet, and how artfully was the intended revenge concealed from the jailor![…]Now, I have perceived since people have been hung several times in Malacca and Singapore, amoks, murders, and piracies have lessened,—just in the same manner as when you see heavy squalls, thunder and lightning, that these being in truth dangerous and frightful, but they clear the atmosphere, carrying off all bad vapours, from which proceed sicknesses: thus come good health and tranquility to mankind.[…]The population of the tropics are akin to their climate,—generally calm, listless, and dreamy,—but these amoks intermittently, like Sumatra squalls, burst forth and bear down all before them. Yet, like the squall, the frenzied amoker has but a short career,[…]

   1874, Translations from the Hakayit Abdulla (bin Abdulkadar), Mūnshi, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], pages 133, 233 and 234

   For the convenience of this paper I shall call the man who runs Amok an “Amoker,” and the crime “Amoking.” /[…]I believe Penang has claimed that the Chief Justice’s (Sir Wm. Norris) sentence, which reads like one of those of the middle ages, and which I will give in detail later on, passed upon an Amoker, and carried out within eight days of the Amok in 1846, was the means of stamping out Amok entirely for years, but I can obtain no reliable information in proof of this. I intend trying to give a brief sketch of Amok and its causes, some notes on recent cases, and to point out a possible field in which its pathology may eventually be determined.

   1893 July, W. Gilmore Ellis, “The Amok of the Malays”, in D. Hack Tuke, Geo. H. Savage, editors, The Journal of Mental Science, volume XXXIX, number 166 (new series, 130), part 1, “Original Articles”, London: J. and A. Churchill, […], page 325

present singular third person amoks · participle present amoking · participle past amoked · past amoked · alternative amuck · alternative amock

1. Synonym of run amok.

   The Rájá not listening to this language, again tried to kill Gumpar with a spear, and all his people assisted in thrusting and cutting at him; there was a great hubbub, and people outside of the fort were astonished to learn that there was amoking within it.

   1849, James Low, “A Translation of the Keddah Annals Termed Marong Mahawangsa; and Sketches of the Ancient Condition of Some of the Nations of Eastern Asia, with References to the Malays”, in J. R. Logan, editor, The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, volume III, Singapore: […] G. M. Frederick, chapter VIII, page 265

   5 more examples

   After being there about ten minutes he revived, and soon entered into conversation with us; but he looked fiendish, as if something was preying upon his mind. This we found to be the case, as some gay Lothario had lately robbed him of his intended bride. Such causes in most instances lead to the Malay amoking (running a-muck).[…]I have never yet known a case of a Dyak amoking, yet it was of frequent occurrence among Malays in former times.

   1866, Charles Brooke, Ten Years in Saráwak, volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], pages 27 and 55

   Orders were immediately given to shut and fasten the gates of our enclosure; but hearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found there had been a false alarm, owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would "amok," because his master wanted to sell him.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 272

   One of the Governors of Bencoolen was thus “amoked” in his own sitting-room, where he met instant death, owing to his having by mistake struck the son of a Malay chief with his whip when taking his evening airing in a buggy. A Dutch admiral was “amoked” on his own quarter-deck when receiving a Javanese chief and his family on board, he having saluted (as was the custom of his country at that time) the chief’s daughter. He died on the spot for the supposed insult. In the case of the Lieutenant-Governor of Singapore, his being “amoked” appears to have been a mere chance collision, the intended victim having been another native by whom the “amoker” had been imprisoned.[…]It was about two Fridays after this that the Sultan and Mr. Raffles met at the house of Colonel Farquhar, for on that day there was a trial of an ‘amoker,’ who had ‘amoked’ at Campong Glam; and when this was over, Mr. Raffles asked the Sultan about their former discourse.

   1874, Translations from the Hakayit Abdulla (bin Abdulkadar), Mūnshi, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], pages 133 and 138

   For the convenience of this paper I shall call the man who runs Amok an “Amoker,” and the crime “Amoking.” / It is necessary to state at once that I do not in any way intend to discuss the point as to whether the judicial execution of men Amoking is right or wrong, or as to whether execution of all Amokers would tend to lessen the frequency of the crime.

   1893 July, W. Gilmore Ellis, “The Amok of the Malays”, in D. Hack Tuke, Geo. H. Savage, editors, The Journal of Mental Science, volume XXXIX, number 166 (new series, 130), part 1, “Original Articles”, London: J. and A. Churchill, […], page 325

   “I have never yet known a case of a Dyak amoking.” So wrote Sir Charles Brooke (i. 55) thirty years ago. Ten years later Mr. G. Gueritz, Resident at Semanggang, wrote as follows: “I am exceedingly sorry to have to report a very serious case of amoking at Lingga. A Kalaka man named S’Apong on returning to his house the other evening, from fishing, drew his parang and cut down his wife, father-in-law and a child; the woman is desperately wounded.[…]” (S. G., No. 69.)

   1896, Henry Ling Roth, “Character Notes and Sketches”, in The Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Truslove & Comba, […], “Amoking”, page 95

   Synonyms: run amok

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