killing
/ˈkɪl.ɪŋ/
killing adjective: that literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal. Also the present participle and gerund of kill.
Adjective
killing (comparative more killing, superlative most killing)
- That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
- 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
- He sprang to open the door for the ladies, when they retired, with the most killing grace […]1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
- 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
killing (countable and uncountable, plural killings)
- The act of killing.
- In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Numa ‘El Adrea’”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, pages 116–117
- 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, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 180
- A police officer in neighboring Mekit county told RFA he was informed that police were searching the houses for a suspect from Pichan (in Chinese, Shanshan) county in Xinjiang’s Turpan prefecture when the killings occurred.2013 April 24, Shohret Hoshur, Qiao Long, Hai Nan, Luisetta Mudie, Parameswaran Ponnudurai, “Xinjiang Violence Leaves 21 Dead”, in Dolkun Kamberi, Luisetta Mudie, Mamatjan Juma, transl., Radio Free...
- 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
Proper noun capitalized: Killing
Killing
- A surname.
Also used as
killing is also the present participle and gerund of kill.
killing meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit
killing in Hindi
- lethal, deadly, fatal
- घातक ghātak
killing in Tamil
- கொலை செய்தல்
killing in Telugu
- instance of someone being killed
- చంపుట campuṭa
killing in Sanskrit
- lethal, deadly, fatal
- घातुक ghātuka
- instance of someone being killed
- घात ghāta
More languagesFewer languages
- killing in Arabic
- مُمِيت mumīt, قَاتِل qātil, قَتْل qatl
Forms of killing
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more killing |
| superlative | most killing |
| Noun | |
| plural | killings |
Origin of killing
From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.
Words formed from killing
- killingly
- killingness
- Killing field
- Killing horizon
- Killing vector
- Killing vector field
- antikilling
- contract killing
- counterkilling
- honour killing
- honor killing
- killing bottle
- killing box
- killing frost
- killing jar
- killingry
- ladykilling
- make a killing
- nonkilling
- painkilling
- photokilling
- self-killing
- semikilling
- targeted killing
- Terms derived from killing
- thrill killing
- time-killing
- weedkilling
Phrases with killing
- killing it
- killing off
- Killing form
- killing jars
- killing time
- twin killing
- killing boxes
- killing floor
- Killing forms
- killing spree
- killing times
- mercy killing
24 more phrasesFewer phrases
- spawn killing
- double killing
- killing fields
- killing floors
- killing frosts
- killing sprees
- made a killing
- serial killing
- killing bottles
- killing oneself
- makes a killing
- one-hit killing
- surplus killing
- Killing horizons
- making a killing
- killing someone dead
- Killing vector fields
- killing with kindness
- killing one's darlings
- killing the fatted calf
- you're killing me, smalls
- killing two birds with one shot
- killing two birds with one stone
- killing the goose that lays the golden eggs
Words that rhyme with killing
- filling
- milling
- shilling
- billing
- quilling
- chilling
- take the shilling
- drilling
- fulfilling
- grilling
- spilling
- trilling
10 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about killing
- What does killing mean?
- Killing means that literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
- What is killing in Hindi?
- Killing in Hindi is घातक (ghātak). See Killing meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is killing?
- Killing can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce killing?
- Killing is pronounced /ˈkɪl.ɪŋ/.
Words near killing in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: killing (page history and authors); Killing (page history and authors); killing (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-killing.ogg.
Cite this entry: “killing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/killing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.