From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbe murderbe murderspokenDIFFICULT to be very difficult or unpleasant It’s murder doing the shopping on Saturdays. The traffic was murder this morning. → murder
Examples from the Corpus
be murder• It's murder trying to park in this town!• The confessor was murdered and Dymphna was beheaded for refiising to return home.• Victims' families wonder if that money might be better spent on children whose parents were murdered.• There was murder in his heart.• Later I would run breathless from the bus stop, expecting to be murdered, beaten, raped.• It used to be murder talking about it.• Traffic was murder this morning.• Traveling five days a week is murder. I can't do it anymore.• Until recently, lower military officials had taken the blame for the estimated 3,000 people who were murdered or went missing.• As a result, Victor's friend and wife were murdered by his creation. 