autocide
autocide noun: control of a pest through propagation of sterile males.
Noun (1)
autocide (countable and uncountable, plural autocides)
- Control of a pest through propagation of sterile males.
- Generally, autocide is most effective when applied to restricted populations (islands, etc.), but can be effective on parts of continents.1975, Dennis S. Hill, Agricultural Insect Pests of the Tropics and Their Control, 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 22
- A substance produced by a bacterium that is fatal to that bacterium.
- Five different autocides have been isolated from Myxococcus xanthus.2001, “Myxococcales”, in David R. Boone et al., editors, Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, →ISBN, page 1065
Noun (2)
autocide (countable and uncountable, plural autocides)
- An act of suicide committed by crashing an automobile.
- "Autocide is becoming the second most popular method for older teens to commit suicide," she said.1993 December 13, “Northbridge Educators Alerted to Depression Among Students”, in Worcester Telegram Gazette
- An act of killing someone with an automobile.
Noun (3)
autocide (plural autocides)
- One who commits suicide.
- For as Saint Auguſtine reaſons well againſt ſuch Autocides and ſelfe murtherers, it is rather a token of puſillanimity and lacke of courage in them, than otherwayes a marke of true reſolution to doe ſo; […]1635, David Person, “[A Treatise of Death, and of Diverse Orders and Ceremonies of Burials.] Section 1. The Remembrance of Death Requisite in All Men: […]”, in Varieties: or, A Surveigh of Rare and...
- The irony of Johnson's title is that only two years later this most professional of artists - poet, novelist, short-story writer, filmmaker, dramatist, and sports journalist - killed himself at the age of forty-two. The autobiographer as autocide.1990 June, Richard Martin, “Aren't You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs? or, B[ryan] S[tanley] Johnson on Raymond Federman”, in Alfred Hornung, Ernstpeter Ruhe, editors, Autobiographie &...
- Synonyms:
- an hero, self-killer, self-murderer, self-slayer, suicide, suicidee, suicider, suicidist
Synonyms of autocide
Forms of autocide
| plural | autocides |
|---|
Origin of autocide
From auto- (“self”) + -cide (“killing”).
From auto- (“automobile”) + -cide (“killing”).
From auto- (“self”) + -cide (“killer”).
Questions about autocide
- What does autocide mean?
- Autocide means control of a pest through propagation of sterile males.
- What part of speech is autocide?
- Autocide is a noun.
- What is the plural of autocide?
- The plural of autocide is autocides.
Words near autocide in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: autocide (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “autocide.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/autocide. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.