murder will out

English

Etymology

The phrase murder will out, literally "murder will become public", appears as far back as Geoffrey Chaucer's works. The phrase is often linked to the superstition that a murderer's presence near the corpse will be indicated by fresh bleeding.

Proverb

murder will out

A murderer will always be discovered.
(idiomatic) Secrets or hidden crimes will eventually be exposed or discovered; nothing that is secret can remain a secret forever.

Related terms

truth will out

Translations

proverb

Chinese:
Mandarin: 紙包不住火／纸包不住火 (zh) (zhǐ bāo bùzhù huǒ, literally “fire cannot be wrapped up in paper”), 天网恢恢，疏而不漏 (zh) (tiānwǎnghuīhuī, shū'érbùlòu)
Finnish: ennen pitkää totuus paljastuu
German: Die Sonne bringt es an den Tag (literally “the sun brings it to the day”)
Hebrew: סוף גנב לתליה (he), רצח סופו שיתגלה
Luxembourgish: D'Sonn bréngt et un d'Liicht (literally “the sun brings it in the light”)
Russian: ши́ла в мешке́ не утаи́шь (šíla v mešké ne utaíšʹ, literally “you can't hide an awl in a sack”)

References

“murder will out”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from E. D. Hirsch Jr.; Joseph F. Kett; James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, →ISBN.
“murder”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
"English Legal Proverbs", Donald F. Bond, PMLA, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Dec., 1936), pp. 927.

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