killing
Americannoun
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the act of a person or thing that kills.
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the total game killed on a hunt.
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Informal. a quick and unusually large profit or financial gain.
We would all like to win the lottery or make a killing in the stock market.
adjective
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Tuberculosis was a killing disease well into the 20th century, and society found itself with few remedies.
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exhausting.
An ever-expanding workload is imperceptible at first, but eventually we're operating at a killing pace.
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Informal. irresistibly funny.
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Slang. very attractive or fascinating.
The actress is known for her outstanding beauty and killing smile.
adjective
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informal very tiring; exhausting
a killing pace
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informal extremely funny; hilarious
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causing death; fatal
noun
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the act of causing death; slaying
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informal a sudden stroke of success, usually financial, as in speculations on the stock market (esp in the phrase make a killing )
Other Word Forms
- killingly adverb
- self-killing adjective
- unkilling adjective
Etymology
Origin of killing
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English killing(e), kyllyng(e) (gerund); kill 1, -ing 1, -ing 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bronstein’s killing was one of three cases in which Hochman assigned new prosecutors in the months before a trial started or a plea deal was reached.
From Los Angeles Times
Bovino was pushed into retirement after the killings of Good and Pretti, but as Salon’s Jason Kyle Howard argued, this was a cosmetic shift meant to disguise that there is no “substantive change in policy.”
From Salon
In November, a special court in Bangladesh sentenced the former prime minister, in absentia, to death for her role in the killings of at least 1,400 protesters.
The arrests come as the realization that Iranian security forces carried out one of the biggest waves of political killing in recent history creates fractures within the country’s political system.
They say Campbell was not in Leafy Lane, where the body was found, at the time of the killing and was instead at home in Aberfeldy.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
