Definition of "Murphy"

Murphy

/ˈmɝfi/

proper noun
1. A common surname from Irish, the anglicized form of Irish Ó Murchadha
  Quotations
  After a long talk between these two, and a little broken English from the Frenchmen, our visitors took leave; but Father Murphy had hardly gone a dozen rods when back he came, inquiring whether we were in want of anything.
  1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […]
2. A unisex given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
  Quotations
  Sonja made me promise I would go to college. She said she'd wanted her daughter, Murphy, to go. She'd named her baby Murphy because it could never be a stripper name. But her daughter had changed her name to London.
  2012, Louise Erdrich, The Round House, Corsair, published 2013, page 178
3. A number of places in the United States:
  1. A census-designated place, the county seat of Owyhee County, Idaho.
  2. A census-designated place in Jefferson County, Missouri.
  3. A town, the county seat of Cherokee County, North Carolina.
  4. A city in Collin County, Texas.
  5. An unincorporated community in Buchanan County, Virginia.
  6. An unincorporated community in Barbour County, West Virginia.
4. A town in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina.
noun
plural Murphies
1. (slang) Short for Murphy game (“type of confidence trick”).
verb
third-person singular simple present Murphies, present participle Murphying, simple past and past participle Murphied
1. (transitive, slang) To swindle by means of the Murphy game confidence trick.