suicidal

suicide +‎ -al

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌs(j)uː.ɪˈsaɪ.dəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsu.əˈsaɪ.dəl/, /ˌsu.ɪ-/
• Rhymes: -aɪdəl
• Hyphenation: su‧i‧ci‧dal

suicidal (comparative more suicidal, superlative most suicidal)

1. Pertaining to suicide.

   He is an authority on the precursors of suicidal behavior.

2. (of a person) Likely to commit, or to attempt to commit, suicide.

   After losing his job, his wife, and his leg in a single week, he became suicidal.

   • 2020 July 1, Ruth Sutherland, Neil Peters, “Answering the call”, in Rail, page 47:

     The campaign aimed to give commuters the confidence to trust their own instincts and intervene if they spot someone vulnerable who may be at risk of suicide, and to talk to them to interrupt their suicidal thoughts.

   • 2021 February 24, Paul Stephen, “Level crossings are one of our key risk areas”, in RAIL, number 925, page 46:

     Seven people were killed and 66 injured after a High Speed Train slammed into a stationary vehicle that had been parked across the main line by a suicidal driver.

3. (of a voluntarily-chosen course of action) Highly likely to certain to result in the deaths of the participants; dangerous or reckless to such a degree as to be tantamount to suicide for those taking part.
   • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 33:41 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918‎, archived from the original on 4 August 2022:

     Now, that, admittedly, did do an awful lot more damage (the 5th and 6th were almost completely wiped out), but the High Seas Fleet was, in turn, almost completely wiped out (in fact, basically was wiped out, to a man) by the oncoming rest of the British Grand Fleet, and it was decided by everybody that this kind of, like, suicidal, completely suicidal, charge was probably a bit out of character for Hipper, and so we didn't take that particular one into account.

4. (informal, hyperbolic) Extremely reckless.

   His driving habits are utterly suicidal.

• non-suicidal, nonsuicidal

• suicidality
• suicidally
• suicide

suicidal (plural suicidals)

1. Someone suicidal; someone likely to kill themselves.

• clausiid