killing

Etymology

From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of kill

adj

1. That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
2. (dated) Devastatingly attractive.
   Should true Proportion ev'ry Mortal grace, / And Semetry be seen in ev'ry Face: / Beauty no longer would be thought divine, / Nor would its Charms with half the Lustre shine: / No courtly Dame a killing Look could boast, / If once the Foils of Homeliness were lost. 1756, Edward Ward, A Compleat and Humorous Account of All the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the Cities of London and Westminster, page 134
3. That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny.
   Livia found her ‘killing’, and derived such amusement from her Martinique French that he was forced to enjoy her as well. 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 471

noun

1. An instance of someone being killed.
   The outrage over the brutal killings of peaceful demonstrators in Lhasa in March 1989 quickly faded after the massacres in Beijing in June. 1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment, Simon & Schuster, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 180
2. (informal, usually as make a killing) A large amount of money.
   He made a killing on the stock market.
   The result is, in the end, the superintendent agrees to hold up another race, and the victim arranges to obtain all the money he can get in order to bet it on a sure thing. When the great "killing" is made, and the stripped victim goes back to consult with the superintendent[…] 1916, Melville Davisson Post, “The Man Hunters”, in The Saturday Evening Post