kill
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
kill/kɪl/
▶verb
- 1 cause the death of.
■ put an end to.
■ stop (a computing process).
- 2 informal overwhelm with an emotion: the suspense is killing me.
■ cause pain or anguish to.
■ (kill oneself) overexert oneself.
- 3 pass (time) while waiting for something.
- 4 (in soccer and other ball games) make (the ball) stop.
■ Tennis hit (the ball) so that it cannot be returned.
- 1 an act of killing, especially of one animal by another: a lion has made a kill.
■ an animal or animals killed by a hunter or another animal.
- 2 informal an act of destroying or disabling an enemy aircraft, submarine, etc.
– phrases
be in at the kill be present at or benefit from the successful conclusion of an enterprise.
go (or move) in for the kill take ruthless or decisive action to secure an advantage.
kill someone with kindness spoil someone with overindulgence.
be in at the kill be present at or benefit from the successful conclusion of an enterprise.
go (or move) in for the kill take ruthless or decisive action to secure an advantage.
kill someone with kindness spoil someone with overindulgence.
– origin ME (in the sense ‘strike, beat’, also ‘put to death’): prob. of Gmc origin and rel. to quell.
'kill' also found in these Oxford entries:
absolute
- anti-personnel
- asphyxiate
- attempt
- badger-baiting
- blood
- bloodlust
- bloodthirsty
- blow
- butcher
- carry
- -cide
- coup de grâce
- death
- death squad
- decimate
- destroy
- dispatch
- do
- dress
- drown
- dust
- egg
- Electra complex
- electric eel
- electrocute
- fat
- finish
- fit
- flea collar
- flypaper
- frag
- garrotte
- gas
- gas chamber
- get
- girdle
- golden goose
- hang
- hit
- homicide
- hunt
- ice
- immolate
- internecine
- jugulate
- kill file
- killifish
- knock
