Word.ws English Dictionary

kill

/ˈkɪʊ̯//ˈkɪl/

kill verb: to put to death; to extinguish the life of. Also the alternative form of kiln.

Verb

kill (third-person singular simple present kills, present participle killing, simple past and past participle killed)

  1. (transitive) To put to death; to extinguish the life of.
    • Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and hard 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.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. (transitive) To render inoperative.
    • He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
    • He killed the motor.1965 February, Worlds of If, page 33, column 1
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To stop, cease, or render void; to terminate.
    • The editor decided to kill the story.
    • The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it.
  4. (excessive, figuratively, transitive) To amaze, exceed, stun, or otherwise incapacitate.
    • That night, she was dressed to kill.
    • That joke always kills me.
  5. (excessive, figuratively, intransitive, transitive) To cause great pain, discomfort, or distress to; to hurt.
    • These tight shoes are killing my feet.
    • You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill.
  6. (figuratively, transitive) 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. (figuratively, informal, transitive) To overpower, overwhelm, or defeat.
    • Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate.
    • The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations.
  9. (transitive) To force a company out of business.
  10. (excessive, figuratively, informal, transitive) To punish severely.
    • My parents are going to kill me!
    • "Father will kill us for this."1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019
  11. (transitive) 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.2011 February 4, Gareth Roberts, “Wales 19-26 England”, in BBC
  12. (transitive) 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...2015 May 10, Nathan Schmook, “Billings vs Bont”, in St Kilda Football Club
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  1. 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.2016 February 23, Tim Gray, “Chris Rock Tests Jokes at Comedy Clubs Ahead of Oscars”, in Variety
  2. (informal, transitive) To cause to assume the value zero.
  3. (Internet, transitive) To disconnect (a user) involuntarily from the network.
  4. To deadmelt.
  5. (slang) To sexually penetrate in a skillful way.
    • I felt on her big fat fanny
      Pulled out the jammy and killed the punanni1992, Ice Cube, “It Was A Good Day”, in The Predator
  6. (informal, reflexive) To exert oneself to an excessive degree.
    • Don't kill yourself raking the leaves now; we're due for a windstorm tonight.

Noun (1)

kill (plural kills)

  1. The act of killing.
    • The assassin liked to make a clean kill, and thus favored small arms over explosives.
    • The blonde women were in a frenzy of excitement, their faces transformed from dull moronity to living evil; they shouted like wild animals at the kill.1957, Sydney J. Bounds, The Robot Brains, London: Digit Books, page 100
  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.1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC
  4. (countable) An instance of killing; a score on the tally of enemy personnel or vehicles killed or destroyed.
    • confirmed kills
    • A flying ace is usually one with five or more confirmed kills.
  5. 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

Noun (2)

kill (plural kills)

  1. (New-York, Northeastern, US, archaic, dialectal, largely fossilized in place names) A creek or stream; (more loosely) any watercourse, such as 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.
    1. (New-York, Northeastern, US, archaic, dialectal, largely fossilized in place names) In particular, a waterway with a name ending in kill, such as the Beaverkill or the East Kill.
      • We're gonna go flyfishing over in the kill.

Proper noun capitalized: Kill

Kill (plural Kills)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

kill is also the alternative form of kiln.

kill meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

kill in Hindi

to put to death
मार डालना mār ḍālnā, मारना mārnā, हत्या करना hatyā karnā, वध करना vadh karnā, प्राण ले लेना prāṇ le lenā, कतल करना katal karnā
to waste
व्यर्थ खोना vyarth khonā

kill in Tamil

to put to death
கொல் kol

kill in Marathi

to put to death
मारणे mārṇe, हत्या करणे hatyā karṇe
to waste
वाया जाने vāyā jāne

kill in Urdu

to put to death
مارنا mārnā, قتل کرنا qatl karnā, ہلاک کرنا halāk karna, مار ڈالنا mār ḍālnā
act of killing
قتل qatl
More languagesFewer languages
kill in Bengali
হত্যা করা hotta kora, বধ করা bodh kora
kill in Telugu
చంపు campu
kill in Malayalam
കൊല്ലുക kolluka
kill in Kannada
ಕೊಲ್ಲು kollu
kill in Punjabi
ਮਾਰ ਸੁੱਟਣਾ mār suṭṭaṇā
kill in Gujarati
મારવું mārvũ
kill in Odia
ମରେଇବା mareibā
kill in Sanskrit
हन्ति hanti
kill in Sinhala
මරනවා maranawā
kill in Assamese
মাৰ mar, মাৰি পেলা mari pela, হত্যা কৰ hoitta kor
kill in Nepali
मार्नु mārnu
kill in Pashto
قتلول qatlawᶕl, مړه کول mṛǝ́kawǝ́l
kill in Tagalog
patay, patayin
kill in Arabic
قَتَلَ qatala, قتل ʔatal, موت mawwit, قَتَل gatal
kill in Malay
membunuh, bunuh, pembunuhan
kill in Indonesian
membunuh
kill in Persian
کشتن koštan
kill in Thai
ฆ่า kâa
kill in Vietnamese
giết
kill in Myanmar
သတ် sat, သတ်ဖြတ် sathprat

Examples of kill in a sentence

  • My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes.
  • 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 : […]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  • Indeed, referring to his drone murder extermination campaign Obama bragged: "I'm really good at killing people!" Those are Obama's own words!2021, Francis A. Boyle, World Politics, Human Rights, and International Law, page 9:
  • As the country reckons with how to prevent more children from being killed at school, the legacies of the Parkland victims live on.2023 February 14, Holly Yan, “5 years after the Parkland school massacre claimed 17 lives, here’s what has changed (and what hasn’t)”, in...
  • After all, improving road safety has become a widely endorsed cause because nobody wants to kill, or be killed, in a road accident.2024 September 16, Stéphane Foucart, 'To reduce their environmental impact, why not simply regulate the weight of cars?', Le Monde:

Synonyms of kill

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

8 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of kill

Forms of kill

Verb
third-person singular presentkills
present participlekilling
past participlekilled
pastkilled
alternative formk1ll
second-person singular present (archaic)killest
second-person singular past (archaic)killedst
third-person singular present (archaic)killeth
Noun
pluralkills
alternative proper-noun short-formKill
alternative formKills
alternative short-form'kill
Proper noun
pluralKills

Origin of kill

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”). * Perhaps from unattested 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”) (whence German Low German kellen, killen (“to hurt, injure, torment, vex”)), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).

Borrowing from Dutch kil (formerly spelled kill), from Middle Dutch kille, from Old Dutch *killa, from Proto-West Germanic *killjā, from Proto-Germanic *kiljǭ (“fissure, slit; a type of stream, creek, channel”). Doublet of Kiel. Most place names with kill were derived entirely in Dutch, but many have been subsequently calqued into English or anglicized by folk etymology; for example, Motherkill and Murderkill both likely derive from Dutch *Modderkil (“Mud Creek”) (better preserved in Mudder Kill and Muddy Kill), originally having nothing to do with mothership or murder.

* As a German and Dutch surname, probably shortened from Kilian. * Also as a German surname, from Kyll in the Eifel mountains, from Latin Celbis. * As a Jewish surname, probably from Yiddish קיל (kil, “cool”).

Words formed from kill

Phrases with kill

75 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with kill

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about kill

What does kill mean?
Kill means to put to death; to extinguish the life of.
What is kill in Hindi?
Kill in Hindi is मार डालना (mār ḍālnā), मारना (mārnā), हत्या करना (hatyā karnā). See Kill meaning in Hindi.
How do you use kill in a sentence?
My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes.
What part of speech is kill?
Kill can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce kill?
Kill is pronounced /ˈkɪl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of kill?
The past tense of kill is killed.

Words near kill in the dictionary

  1. Kilkenny cat
  2. Kilkenny cats
  3. Kilker
  4. Kilkers
  5. Kilkiling
  6. kill
  7. kill bit
  8. kill bits
  9. kill box
  10. kill boxes
  11. kill chain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kill (page history and authors); Kill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-kill.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kill.wav.

Cite this entry: “kill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.