buzzkill

American  

[buhz-kil] / ˈbʌzˌkɪl /

Or buzz kill

noun

Slang.

buzzkills plural

1. a person or thing that spoils the mood or the pleasure of others.

   Enforcement of strict park rules could be a buzzkill for concertgoers.

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buzzkill British  

/ ˈbʌzˌkɪlə, ˈbʌzˌkɪl /

noun

1. slang someone or something that stops people from enjoying themselves

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• buzzkills
  plural

Etymology

Origin of buzzkill

First recorded in 1990–95; buzz ( def. ) (in the sense “feeling of excitement”) + kill ¹ ( def. ) (in the sense “to spoil”)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

buzzkill buzzkills

Kujawa says he would have "preferred the Bank Holiday after the Brazil match" as it's a "bit of a buzzkill" knowing you have to go to work the next morning.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

“It was like, ‘Thanks for being the buzzkill about my vacation,’ ” he says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026

It was a bit of a buzzkill, so I just gave up on him — and ghosted him.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026

It’s no fun to be a buzzkill with the stock market soaring Wednesday following the announcement of a cease-fire with Iran.

From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026

I scowled—sometimes those guys were a total buzzkill.

From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling

Surely, this is the ultimate consent and the final proof that people like me are just being buzzkills about a fundamentally innocent story.

From The Verge ● Jul. 9, 2018

Certainly not the synthetic reggae of Redondo Beach, which is one of the all-time track-two buzzkills.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 14, 2016

Many of my friends, ashamed, had kept their stories to themselves out of fear of being stigmatized, labeled buzzkills or because their masculinity put them in conflict with being victimized.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 27, 2015

That's the same Allen Shapiro from whom Snyder bought Dick Clark Productions in 2007 using money from Six Flags shareholders in a complicated transaction that ... oh, now's not the time for buzzkills!

From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2013