killings

Noun

killing (countable and uncountable, plural killings)

1. 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
2. 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
3. (informal, usually) A large amount of money.
   • He made a killing on the stock market.

See all 7 meanings of killing