Meanings
- AustraliadatedoffensiveA jocular explanation for bad luck.
It appeared as though someone in the Battalion must have killed a Chinaman, as the weather continued rough and stormy, with strong wind.
1925, L. M. Newton, The Story of the Twelfth: A Record of the 12th Battalion, page 132
Origin
Referring to a putative, and otherwise unrecorded, Anglo-Australian superstition that killing a Chinese person brought about bad luck.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
must have killed a Chinaman. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/must%20have%20killed%20a%20Chinaman
“must have killed a Chinaman.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/must%20have%20killed%20a%20Chinaman. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “must have killed a Chinaman,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/must%20have%20killed%20a%20Chinaman.
Source: must have killed a Chinaman on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.