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:
A study published in 2025 in the Journal of Economic Entomology showed that bistrifluron, an insect growth regulator that interferes with the formation of a new exoskeleton, can kill western drywood termites with remarkable efficiency.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, told BBC that a "kill switch" that can be checked by a third party may need to be mandatory for the industry.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
“If we kill the Golden Goose,” he wrote then, “you will only have yourselves to blame.”
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2026
The researcher, Jacob Coxon, said in a social media post: “People building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
He could sense her smugness as she slithered back to his desk, and he had to bite down on the corners of his mouth to kill his laughter.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Marymount, which lost to No. 2 Mater Dei on Saturday in the championship of the Dave Mohs tournament, received 27 kills from Northwestern-bound Makenna Barnes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Last time a marine heatwave hit South Australia and Tasmania, there were starving penguins, fish kills, suffocating algae outbreaks, and jellyfish invasions.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
"If a power acts like Satan, picks targets like Satan, and kills like Satan, it's Satan," he posted on X.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
It’s absurd that one of the first guys Cole kills could be his doppelganger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
It kills me to have risked all of this for nothing.
From "Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
During the 1710 siege of Tallinn, for example, the disease killed Swedish and Russian soldiers as well as civilians.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Bluebird was recovered from Coniston Water in 2001 after its pilot was killed in a crash in 1967.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
One man was killed and two people were hospitalized after their fishing boat struck rocks and capsized beneath the Golden Gate Bridge on Thursday, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The Puebloans killed 400 colonists, forcing a Spanish retreat from the area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
Since an earthquake killed thousands in the city of Kobe in 1995, the nation had spent sixteen years reinforcing bridges, reconstructing old buildings with earthquake-resistant technology, and creating earthquake warning systems.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
She told her son the stress was killing her.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
At the dawn of the internet, a select group of companies made a killing creating the equipment and business model for the system of glass strands bundled in cables, known as a fiber-optic network.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Last week’s calls from inside the house that A.I. companies are at risk of losing control of their monsters and killing everyone—true or not!—have continued to sweep the news.
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2026
During the past two decades, however, researchers have discovered that apoptotic caspases are not limited to killing cells.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Badwa said whatever was really killing Lkossans would come from him,” said Ekon.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
