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I want to know if my understanding of the term やっちまった is correct. Could you
please help me out?

The word used is やっちまった, this is the past form of やっちまう which means "to do
something one regrets". It is a colloquialism built from やって, the -te form of
やる (to do), and しまう (to finish).

However, colloquially, やる can mean "to harm; to injure; to kill" and しまう,
after the -te form of a verb, means "to finish ...; to do ... completely",
indicating completion (and sometimes reluctance, regret, etc.).

So やっちまった can mean "to completely kill" or something alike.
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2016-09-10T16:15:53.883
39111
2016-09-11T00:49:02.930
17828
question
meaning
Is my understanding of やっちまった correct?
Yes, やっちまった is a colloquial contraction of やってしまった, and sounds a bit rough and
masculine to me. See [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/18159/5010)
for the rule.

しまう is a subsidiary verb that has several meanings, but when やっちまった is said
after someone did something, it expresses the speaker's _regrettable feeling_
rather than the completeness of the action. See [this
article](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/unintended). "またやっちまった"
almost always means "(Oops) I did it again (although I was not supposed to do
so / although it was not my intention / regrettably)" rather than "I did it
completely again (intentionally)".

やる can be used to euphemistically mean "to kill" in certain rare contexts, but
it's usually written in kanji (i.e. 殺る) in manga/novels to show it's different
from the normal やる. You don't have to necessarily translate やる in "やっちまった" as
"to kill" even in a murder context. Isn't "Oh no, I did it" enough?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-11T00:49:02.930
39115
2016-09-11T00:49:02.930
2017-04-13T12:43:44.260
-1
5010
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answer