kill

Etymology 1

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. * 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 killen (“to be cold”), 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

1. (transitive) To put to death; to extinguish the life of.
   Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined.
2. (transitive) To render inoperative.
   He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
   He killed the motor. Feb 1965, Worlds of If, page 33, column 1
   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. 1978, John Farris, The Fury
3. (transitive, figurative) To stop, cease, or render void; to terminate.
   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. 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 244
   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.
4. (transitive, figurative, hyperbolic) To amaze, exceed, stun, or otherwise incapacitate.
   That night, she was dressed to kill.
   That joke always kills me.
5. (transitive, figurative, hyperbolic) To cause great pain, discomfort, or distress to; to hurt.
   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. 2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 110
6. (transitive, figurative) To produce feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion in.
   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.
7. (transitive) To use up or to waste.
   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. 2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
8. (transitive, figurative, informal) To exert an overwhelming effect on.
   Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate anymore.
9. (transitive, figurative, hyperbolic) To overpower, overwhelm, or defeat.
   The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations.
10. (transitive) To force a company out of business.
11. (intransitive, informal, hyperbolic) To produce intense pain.
    You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill.
12. (figurative, informal, hyperbolic, transitive) To punish severely.
    My parents are going to kill me!
13. (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.
    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. February 4, 2011, Gareth Roberts, “Wales 19-26 England”, in BBC
14. (transitive, sports) To cause (a ball, etc.) to be out of play, resulting in a stoppage of gameplay.
    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. 10 May 2015, Nathan Schmook, “Billings vs Bont”, in St Kilda Football Club
15. To succeed with an audience, especially in comedy.
    When comics fail, they "die"; when they succeed, they "kill." 2012, Yael Kohen, We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy
    You really killed it at the Comedy Store last night. February 23, 2016, Tim Gray, “Chris Rock Tests Jokes at Comedy Clubs Ahead of Oscars”, in Variety
16. (mathematics, transitive, informal) To cause to assume the value zero.
17. (computing, Internet, IRC, transitive) To disconnect (a user) involuntarily from the network.
18. (metallurgy) To deadmelt.
19. (slang) To sexually penetrate in a skillful way.
    I felt on her big fat fanny/Pulled out the jammy and killed the punanni 1992, Ice Cube (lyrics and music), “It Was A Good Day”, in The Predator
20. (reflexive, informal) To exert oneself to an excessive degree.
    Don't kill yourself raking the leaves now; we're due for a windstorm tonight.

noun

1. The act of killing.
   The assassin liked to make a clean kill, and thus favored small arms over explosives.
2. Specifically, the death blow.
   The hunter delivered the kill with a pistol shot to the head.
3. The result of killing; that which has been killed.
   The fox dragged its kill back to its den.
   If ye plunder his kill' from a weaker, devour not all in thy pride.
4. (volleyball) The grounding of the ball on the opponent's court, winning the rally.
   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. 2011, the 34th Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame, in Catawba College's Campus Magazine, Spring/Summer 2011, page 21

Etymology 2

Borrowing from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille.

noun

1. (north-east US) A creek; a body of water; a channel or arm of the sea.
   The channel beyond Staten Island, which connects Newark Bay with Bergen Neck is the Kill van Kull, or the Kills.
   Schuylkill, Catskill, etc.

Etymology 3

noun

1. (rare) Alternative form of kiln
   This very curious and valuable record is as follows, in the handwriting of Conyers and the accompanying engraving is carefully reduced (see Fig. 138 ) 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. 1878, Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt, The Ceramic Art of Great Britain from Pre-historic Times Down to the Present Day, page 39
   The stack of one of the pottery kills is still a visible land mark of this once thriving industry. 1945, Arthur Edwin James, The Potters and Potteries of Chester County, Pennsylvania, page 34
   A funerary ceremony comparable to that reported from Kolomoki site is indicated, though no "pottery kill” was located. 1951, Bulletin - Eastern States Archeological Federation, page 11
   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. 2000, Argo - Volume 43, Issue 1, page 59
   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.” 2015, Kirilka Stavreva, Words Like Daggers, page 77