Etimology
From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”). Perhaps from Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”). Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell). Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole). Compare also Saterland Frisian källe (“to hurt”), Middle Dutch kellen (“to kill, hurt”), Middle Low German kellen, killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).
verb
kill (third-person singular simple present kills, present participle killing, simple past and past participle killed)
(transitive) To put to death; to extinguish the life of.
(transitive) To render inoperative.
(transitive, figuratively) To stop, cease, or render void; to terminate.
(transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To amaze, exceed, stun, or otherwise incapacitate.
(transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To cause great pain, discomfort, or distress to; to hurt.
(transitive, figuratively) To produce feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion in.
(transitive) To use up or to waste.
(transitive, figuratively, informal) To exert an overwhelming effect on.
(transitive, figuratively, hyperbolic) To overpower, overwhelm, or defeat.
(transitive) To force a company out of business.
(intransitive, informal, hyperbolic) To produce intense pain.
(figuratively, informal, hyperbolic, transitive) To punish severely.
(transitive, sports) To strike (a ball, etc.) with such force and placement as to make a shot that is impossible to defend against, usually winning a point.
(transitive, sports) To cause (a ball, etc.) to be out of play, resulting in a stoppage of gameplay.
To succeed with an audience, especially in comedy.
(mathematics, transitive, informal) To cause to assume the value zero.
(computing, Internet, IRC, transitive) To disconnect (a user) involuntarily from the network.
(metallurgy) To deadmelt.
(slang) To sexually penetrate in a skillful way.
(reflexive, informal) To exert oneself to an excessive degree.
Examples
Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined.
A Troope of Horſe with Felt: Ile put't in proofe, / And when I haue ſtolne vpon theſe Son in Lawes, / Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.
Stephano: Monſter, I will kill this man : his daughter and I will be King and Queene, ſave our Graces : and Trinculo and thy ſelfe ſhall be Vice-royes : […]
He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
He killed the motor.
Peter: Ask Childers if it was worth his arm.Policeman: What did you do to his arm, Peter?Peter: I killed it, with a machine gun.
He closed the boot, walked round to the kerbside and bent to peer into the car's interior, his face pressed to the passenger window, his hands shading his eyes to kill the reflection.
The editor decided to kill the story.
The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it.
My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes.
That night, she was dressed to kill.
That joke always kills me.
He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car. That killed me.
These tight shoes are killing my feet.
two laps into our first walk, my dad needed to sit down. His back and legs were killing him. "You'll be okay," I assured him. "You just need to shake off the rust."I gave him a couple of Advil and, after a few minutes, urged him back onto the track.
It kills me to throw out three whole turkeys, but I can't get anyone to take them and they've already started to go bad.
It kills me to learn how many poor people are practically starving in this country while rich moguls spend such outrageous amounts on useless luxuries.
I'm just doing this to kill time.
Except for the shirt, which he’d worn, and the check, which he’d cashed, and the bottle of port, which he’d killed in bed on Christmas night, the gifts from his family were still on the floor of his bedroom.
Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate anymore.
The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations.
You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill.
My parents are going to kill me!
"Father will kill us for this."
That close call encouraged Wales to launch another series of attacks that ended when lock Louis Deacon killed the ball illegally in the shadow of England's posts.
As the ball was delivered deep into St Kilda's forward line by Billings, Bontempelli had position on the goal line, with a pack forming in front of him. He decided to fly but didn't kill the ball, leaving it to spill where he had been positioned moments earlier. Jack Sinclair gratefully swooped and kicked a goal that cut the margin to five points.
When comics fail, they "die"; when they succeed, they "kill."
You really killed it at the Comedy Store last night.
I felt on her big fat fanny/Pulled out the jammy and killed the punanni
Don't kill yourself raking the leaves now; we're due for a windstorm tonight.
Related words
synonyms
(to put to death): assassinate, bump off, dispatch, ice, knock off, liquidate, murder, rub out, slaughter, slay, top, whack
(to use up or waste): fritter away, while away
(to render inoperative): break, deactivate, disable, turn off
(to exert an overwhelming effect on): annihilate (informal)
(to exert oneself to an excessive degree): bust one's ass (vulgar, slang)
See also Thesaurus:kill
hyponyms
cull
instakill
instant kill
noun
kill (plural kills)
The act of killing.
Specifically, the death blow.
The result of killing; that which has been killed.
(volleyball) The grounding of the ball on the opponent's court, winning the rally.
Examples
The assassin liked to make a clean kill, and thus favored small arms over explosives.
The hunter delivered the kill with a pistol shot to the head.
The fox dragged its kill back to its den.
If ye plunder his kill from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride.
confirmed kills
A flying ace is usually one with five or more confirmed kills.
Hyponym: shootdown
As a senior in 1993, Turner had a kill percentage of 40.8, which was a school record at the time and the best in the SAC. Turner concluded her volleyball career with 1,349 kills, ranking fifth all-time at Catawba.
Related words
hyponyms
catastrophic kill
firepower kill
mission kill
mobility kill
one-hit kill
thrill kill
Etimology
Borrowing from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille, from Old Dutch *killa, from Proto-West Germanic *killjā, from Proto-Germanic *kiljǭ.
noun
kill (plural kills)
(New York) A creek; a body of water; a channel or arm of the sea.
Examples
The channel beyond Staten Island, which connects Newark Bay with Bergen Neck is the Kill van Kull, or the Kills.
Schuylkill, Catskill, etc.
noun
kill (plural kills)
(rare) Alternative form of kiln
Examples
This very curious and valuable record is as follows, in the handwriting of Conyers and the accompanying engraving is carefully reduced from Conyers' own drawing:—“This kill was full of the coarser sorts of potts or cullings, so that few were saved whole, viz., lamps, bottles, urnes, dishes.
The stack of one of the pottery kills is still a visible land mark of this once thriving industry.
A funerary ceremony comparable to that reported from Kolomoki site is indicated, though no "pottery kill” was located.
We may indeed assume that cracked and broken ware was discarded in the immediate vicinity of the pottery kills, that is, if it was not thrown in to the Krka.
Admonished that she should “keep the woman's virtue and be more silent,” she countered “that she was 'born in a mill, begot in a kill, she must have her will,' she could speak no softlier.”