# kill

Pronunciation: say "KIL" /kɪl/

## Verb

1. To cause the death of a person, animal, or other living thing.
   - Simple: To make a person, animal, or plant die.
   - _The hunters killed two deer before noon._
   - _A hard frost can kill tender seedlings overnight._
3. To put an end to something, such as a plan, a law, or a business.
   - Simple: To stop something so that it ends or fails for good.
   - _The senate killed the bill before it reached a vote._
   - _Management decided to kill the project after the budget cuts._
7. To switch off or stop a machine, program, connection, or power source.
   - Simple: To turn off or stop a machine, a program, or the power.
   - _Kill the power before touching any of the wires._
   - _He killed the motor and coasted into the driveway._
4. To use up or waste, especially time or remaining supplies.
   - Simple: To use something up, or to spend time doing little.
   - _They killed the afternoon wandering around the mall._
   - _She wanted to kill a few minutes before her appointment._
5. To cause someone great pain, discomfort, or distress.
   - Simple: To hurt someone a lot or make them very upset.
   - _The bright lights were killing her eyes during the migraine._
   - _Long flights always kill my back, no matter how I sit._
8. To defeat or overwhelm completely. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To beat someone or something completely, often in a game or contest.
   - _The home side absolutely killed their rivals on Saturday._
   - _We need a better strategy, or they'll kill us again._
9. To perform or do something extremely well, especially before an audience, as in comedy.
   - Simple: To do something very well, especially when performing or telling jokes to an audience.
   - _She killed during her first late-night set._
   - _Comics who relax on stage tend to kill._
10. To overwhelm someone, especially with laughter or amazement.
   - Simple: To make someone laugh very hard, or to amaze them.
   - _That final punchline absolutely kills me._
   - _His clever one-liners kill me every single time._
11. To punish someone very severely. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To punish someone very harshly.
   - _Mom is going to kill you when she sees this mess._
   - _Her parents will kill her if she misses curfew again._
13. To push oneself to exhaustion through excessive effort. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To work or try so hard that you wear yourself out.
   - _He kills himself at the gym six days a week._
   - _There's no need to kill yourself over a minor report._
14. To strike a ball with enough force and placement that the opponent cannot return it, usually winning the point.
   - Simple: To hit a ball so hard and well that the other team cannot return it.
   - _She killed the ball cross-court for the winning point._
   - _Whenever an opponent's lob falls short, she charges the net and tries to kill the ball into the open court._
15. In ice hockey, to keep the opponents from scoring while one's team is a player down because of a penalty, often followed by "off".
   - Simple: In ice hockey, to stop the other team from scoring while your team has one player fewer because of a penalty.
   - _Coaches send out their best defensive forwards to kill penalties late in close games._
   - _The visitors killed off a five-minute major and then scored seconds after it ended._
17. To cause a ball to be out of play, bringing the action to a stop.
   - Simple: To put a ball out of play so that the game stops.
   - _The clock had run out, so the scrum-half killed the ball by booting it into the stands._
   - _Teams that kill the ball late often protect a narrow lead._
18. To fully deoxidize molten steel so that it solidifies without releasing gas.
   - Simple: To take the oxygen out of melted steel so that it hardens without gas bubbling out.
   - _Adding aluminum kills the steel and prevents gas bubbles._
   - _Mills kill the steel to produce a cleaner, denser ingot._
19. To sexually penetrate a partner with notable skill. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To have sex with someone in a very skillful, satisfying way.
   - _After their first night together, she texted her sister that he had absolutely killed her._
   - _Still catching her breath, she grinned and told him nobody could kill that pussy like he did._

## Noun

2. An act of killing a person or animal, including the final attack; also each enemy killed or enemy vehicle destroyed, as counted in combat or in a video game.
   - Simple: The act of killing a person or animal, or each enemy counted as killed or destroyed in war or a video game.
   - _The documentary captured the leopard's kill in slow motion._
   - _The pilot was credited with five kills during the war._
12. The animal or prey that has been killed, especially in hunting.
   - Simple: An animal that a hunter or predator has killed.
   - _The eagle returned to its kill at first light._
   - _Wolves often guard a fresh kill from circling scavengers._
6. In volleyball, an attacking hit that wins the rally outright, whether it lands untouched or the defenders cannot keep it in play.
   - Simple: In volleyball, an attacking hit that wins the point because the other team cannot return it.
   - _She finished the match with fifteen kills._
   - _A clean kill down the line ended the rally instantly._
16. A creek, stream, or channel of water, including an arm of the sea. *(dialectal, New York)*
   - Simple: A small stream, channel, or narrow part of the sea.
   - _Tugboats pushing heavy barges move through the Kill Van Kull day and night._
   - _In the Hudson Valley, many streams are still called kills, a word left over from early Dutch settlers._

## Other meanings

- (verb) To cause a term or quantity to become zero.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–15, 17–19** — Middle English had killen, kyllen and cüllen, meaning "to strike, beat, cut", but where these came from is obscure. One idea is an unrecorded Old English *cyllan, which would trace through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to throw, hit, hurt by throwing". Others see it as an altered form of Old English cwellan ("to kill"), or connect it with Old Norse kolla, meaning "to hit on the head, harm".
**Meaning 16** — Proto-Germanic *kiljǭ developed into Proto-West Germanic *killjā, which became *killa in Old Dutch, kille in Middle Dutch, and kil in modern Dutch. English borrowed the Dutch word.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/kill (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).