1. Death caused by physical force, injury, or violence
   "The detective investigated the killing of the victim";
   - violent death
    
2. The act of terminating a life
   "The killing of the convicted criminal was carried out by lethal injection";
   - kill, putting to death
    
3. [informal] A very large profit
   "The investors made a killing when the startup went public";
   - cleanup

1. [informal] Very funny
   "a killing joke";
   - sidesplitting
    
2. [informal] Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
   "worked their killing way up the mining valley";
   - arduous, backbreaking, grueling [US], gruelling [Brit, Cdn], hard, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome
    
3. Bringing death
   "The killing blow ended the fight";
   - fatal

1. Cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly
   "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays"
    
2. Deprive of life
   "AIDS has killed thousands in Africa"
    
3. Cause the death of, without intention
   "She was killed in the collision of three cars"
    
4. Be fatal
   "cigarettes kill"; "drunken driving kills"
    
5. Be the source of great pain for
   "These new shoes are killing me!"
    
6. Destroy a vitally essential quality of or in
   "Eating artichokes kills the taste of all other foods"
    
7. Cause to cease operating
   "kill the engine"
    
8. Tire out completely
   "The daily stress of her work is killing her"
    
9. Mark for deletion, rub off, or erase
   "kill these lines in the President's speech";
   - obliterate, wipe out
    
10. Reject or block a proposal, motion, or candidate through a formal vote
    "kill a motion";
    - shoot down, defeat, vote down, vote out
     
11. End or extinguish by forceful means
    "kill poverty!";
    - stamp out
     
12. [informal] Overwhelm with hilarity, pleasure, or admiration
    "The comedian was so funny, he was killing me!"
     
13. [informal] Drink down entirely
    "She killed a bottle of brandy that night";
    - toss off [informal], pop [informal], bolt down [informal], belt down [informal], pour down, down [informal], drink down
     
14. (sport) hit with so much force as to make a return impossible, in racket games
    "She killed the ball"
     
15. (sport) hit with great force
    "He killed the ball"

Derived forms: killings

See also: deadly, deathly, effortful, humorous, humourous [Brit, Cdn, non-standard], kill off, lethal, mortal, terminal

Type of: ache, alter, beat [informal], blackball, change, conclusion, cut, destroy, destruct, drink, earnings, end, ending, engulf, exhaust, fatality, fish out [informal], hit, human death, hurt, imbibe, ingulf [archaic], lucre, modify, negative, net, net income, net profit, overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, profit, profits, spifflicate [Brit, informal], spiflicate [Brit, informal], suffer, sweep over, switch off, take out, terminate, termination, tucker [N. Amer, informal], tucker out [N. Amer, informal], turn off, turn out, uncreate [literary], veto, wash up

Encyclopedia: Killing