to deprive of life in any manner; cause the death of; slay.
to destroy; do away with; extinguish: His response killed our hopes.
to destroy or neutralize the active qualities of: to kill an odor.
to spoil the effect of: His extra brushwork killed the painting.
to cause (time) to be consumed with seeming rapidity or with a minimum of boredom, especially by engaging in some easy activity or amusement of passing interest: I had to kill three hours before plane time.
to spend (time) unprofitably: He killed ten good years on that job.
Informal. to overcome completely or with irresistible effect: That comedian kills me.
to muffle or deaden: This carpet kills the sound of footsteps.
Informal. to cause distress or discomfort to: These new shoes are killing me.
Informal. to tire completely; exhaust: The long hike killed us.
Informal. to consume completely: They killed a bottle of bourbon between them.
to cancel publication of (a word, paragraph, item, etc.), especially after it has been set in type.
to defeat or veto (a legislative bill, etc.).
Electricity. to render (a circuit) dead.
to stop the operation of (machinery, engines, etc.): He killed the motor and the car stopped.
Tennis. to hit (a ball) with such force that its return is impossible.
Metallurgy.
to deoxidize (steel) before teeming into an ingot mold.
to eliminate springiness from (wire or the like).
to cold-roll (sheet metal) after final heat treatment in order to eliminate distortion.
Ice Hockey. to prevent the opposing team from scoring in the course of (a penalty being served by a teammate or teammates).
verb (used without object)
to inflict or cause death.
to commit murder.
to be killed.
to overcome completely; produce an irresistible effect: dressed to kill.
Slang. to feel a smarting pain, as from a minor accident; sting: I stubbed my little toe and that really kills.
noun
the act of killing, especially game: The hounds moved in for the kill.
an animal or animals killed.
a number or quantity killed.
an act or instance of hitting or destroying a target, especially an enemy aircraft.
to destroy completely; kill, especially successively or indiscriminately: The invaders killed off all the inhabitants of the town.
Informal.to extinguish; eliminate: The bus ride every day kills off all of my energy.
Idioms
kill with kindness, to overdo in one's efforts to be kind: The aunts would kill their nephews and nieces with kindness.
Origin of kill
1
1175–1225;Middle Englishcullen, killen to strike, beat, kill, Old English*cyllan; cognate with dialectal Germanküllen (Westphalian). See quell
Related formskill·a·ble, adjectiveself-killed, adjectiveun·killed, adjectiveCan be confusedkillkiln
Synonym study
1. Kill,execute,murder all mean to deprive of life. Kill is the general word, with no implication of the manner of killing, the agent or cause, or the nature of what is killed (whether human being, animal, or plant): to kill a person.Execute is used with reference to the putting to death of one in accordance with a legal sentence, no matter what the means are: to execute a criminal.Murder is used of killing a human being unlawfully: He murdered him for his money.
c.1200, "to strike, hit, beat, knock;" c.1300, "to deprive of life," perhaps from an unrecorded variant of Old English cwellan "to kill" (see quell), but the earliest sense suggests otherwise. Sense in to kill time is from 1728. Related: Killed; killing. Kill-devil, colloquial for "rum," especially if new or of bad quality, is from 1630s.
kill
n.2
"stream," 1630s, American English, from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille "riverbed," especially in place names (e.g. Schuylkill). A common Germanic word, the Old Norse form, kill, meant "bay, gulf" and gave its name to Kiel Fjord on the German Baltic coast and thence to Kiel, the port city founded there in 1240.
kill
n.1
early 13c., "a stroke, a blow," from kill (v.). Meaning "act of killing" is from 1814; that of "a killed animal" is from 1878. Lawn tennis serve sense is from 1903. The kill "the knockout" is boxing jargon, 1950.
Overwhelm or harm someone with mistaken or excessive benevolence. For example, Aunt Mary constantly sends Jane chocolates and cake and other goodies, even though she's been told Jane's on a diet—nothing like killing with kindness. This expression originated as kill with kindness as fond apes do their young (presumably crushing them to death in a hug) and was a proverb by the mid-1500s.
