kill
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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kills,
present (3rd person singular)
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killed,
past participle, past
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killing
present participle
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to deprive of life in any manner; cause the death of; slay.
- Synonyms:
- assassinate, garrote, strangle, guillotine, behead, electrocute, hang, butcher, massacre, slaughter
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to destroy; extinguish; do away with.
His response killed our hopes.
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to destroy or neutralize the active qualities of.
to kill an odor.
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to spoil the effect of.
His extra brushwork killed the painting.
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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.
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to spend (time) unprofitably.
He killed ten good years on that job.
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Informal. to overcome completely or with irresistible effect.
That comedian kills me.
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to muffle or deaden.
This carpet kills the sound of footsteps.
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Informal. to cause distress or discomfort to.
These new shoes are killing me.
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Informal. to tire completely; exhaust.
The long hike killed us.
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Informal. to consume completely.
They killed a bottle of bourbon between them.
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to cancel publication of (a word, paragraph, item, etc.), especially after it has been set in type.
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to defeat or veto (a legislative bill, etc.).
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Electricity. to render (a circuit) dead.
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to stop the operation of (machinery, engines, etc.).
He killed the motor and the car stopped.
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Tennis. to hit (a ball) with such force that its return is impossible.
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Metallurgy.
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to deoxidize (steel) before teeming into an ingot mold.
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to eliminate springiness from (wire or the like).
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to cold-roll (sheet metal) after final heat treatment in order to eliminate distortion.
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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)
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kills,
present (3rd person singular)
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killed,
past participle, past
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killing
present participle
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to inflict or cause death.
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to commit murder.
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to be killed.
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to overcome completely; produce an irresistible effect.
dressed to kill.
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Slang. to feel a smarting pain, as from a minor accident; sting.
I stubbed my little toe and that really kills.
noun
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the act of killing, especially game.
The hounds moved in for the kill.
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an animal or animals killed.
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a number or quantity killed.
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an act or instance of hitting or destroying a target, especially an enemy aircraft.
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the target so hit or, especially, destroyed.
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Sports. kill shot.
verb phrase
idioms
noun
verb
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(also intr; when tr, sometimes foll by off) to cause the death of (a person or animal)
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to put an end to; destroy
to kill someone's interest
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to make (time) pass quickly, esp while waiting for something
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to deaden (sound)
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informal to tire out; exhaust
the effort killed him
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informal to cause to suffer pain or discomfort
my shoes are killing me
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informal to cancel, cut, or delete
to kill three lines of text
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informal to quash, defeat, or veto
the bill was killed in the House of Lords
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informal to switch off; stop
to kill a motor
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informal (also intr) to overcome with attraction, laughter, surprise, etc
she was dressed to kill
his gags kill me
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slang to consume (alcoholic drink) entirely
he killed three bottles of rum
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sport to hit (a ball) so hard or so accurately that the opponent cannot return it
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soccer to bring (a moving ball) under control; trap
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informal to overexert oneself
don't kill yourself
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to achieve two results with one action
noun
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the act of causing death, esp at the end of a hunt, bullfight, etc
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the animal or animals killed during a hunt
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the seasonal tally of stock slaughtered at a freezing works
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the destruction of a battleship, tank, etc
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present at the end or climax of some undertaking
noun
Synonym Usage
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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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killsimple
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killssimple
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have killedperfect
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has killedperfect
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am killingprogressive
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are killingprogressive
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is killingprogressive
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have been killingperfect progressive
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has been killingperfect progressive
Past
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killedsimple
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had killedperfect
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was killingprogressive
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were killingprogressive
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had been killingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of kill1
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English cullen, killen, kelle “to strike, beat, kill,” Old English cyllan (unattested); cognate with dialectal German küllen (Westphalian). Cf. quell
Origin of kill2
An Americanism first recorded in 1660–70; from Dutch kil, Middle Dutch kille “channel”
Explanation
To kill is to end the life of some living being or something else. So, you could kill a deer by shooting it with a hunting rifle or kill a bill by voting against it. Hunters kill animals for their meat, and drivers sometimes kill an animal accidentally, or inadvertently kill a plant, simply by forgetting to water it. Certain inanimate things are also said to kill, like poison or disease or drunk driving. In each of these cases, death is caused and life is taken. You can also kill figuratively, as when a school board kills the foreign language program or a thunderstorm kills your hopes of a picnic.
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.
See Examples For:
For now, they mainly help evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield or ferry supplies -- reducing the need to send more men into the kill zone.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Replimune’s drug, marketed as Tudriqev, is a genetically modified virus that doctors inject directly into tumors, where it is designed to kill cancer cells and trigger an immune response against tumors elsewhere in the body.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
"We never expected that a cell could just explode like a bomb and kill the cells surrounding it," said senior author Bo Wang, associate professor of bioengineering in the schools of Engineering and Medicine.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
"How does cyanide kill the elephants and leave behind the zebras, antelopes and wildebeests, which are eating the grass together?"
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
“Someone has hired Death himself to kill me. Or worse,” moaned Samir.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
The virus that sparked a global pandemic still regularly infects, disables and kills hundreds of people per week.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
It’s a big issue: The flu kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
If one of those changes allows a cell to survive a drug that kills other tumor cells, that resistant cell can continue multiplying.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Extreme heat kills more people each year than all other forms of extreme weather combined.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
I open my eyes and the light nearly kills me.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
The August 1945 assault by the United States killed more than 210,000 people, including many from the effects of radiation exposure.
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
A year after a tree branch fell at a Calabasas summer camp and killed a camper, the child’s family has reached a settlement with three organizations totaling almost $20 million.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Her husband was Abu Omar Saraqeb, who commanded a coalition of Islamist and jihadist factions that took control of Idlib in 2015 and was killed in an airstrike the following year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
His father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening shots of the war, saw himself as an arbiter between factions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
And so I went to work each day in the quarry, a bone-breaking job that killed heartier men than me, and waited to die.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Around 3 a.m. one night, they observed one of their viruses successfully replicating, and infecting and killing bacterial cells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
A man who was wrongly jailed for 11 years for murder is raising money to restore the grave of the man he was accused of killing.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Dissent got louder after the twin quakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, killing over 6,000 people and decimating hundreds of buildings.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
“We aren’t asking Lineage to turn our community into the next Beverly Hills. We’re asking them to stop slowly killing us for an extra buck.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
I’m learning a new piece, and it’s basically killing me.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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.
