Word.ws English Dictionary

kills one's darlings

kills one's darlings is the third-person singular simple present indicative of kill one's darlings.

Meaning of kill one's darlings

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, often reluctantly in order to improve one's artistic output.
    • Someone asked William Faulkner what the supreme law of art was, and he replied in three words: "Kill your darlings!"1965, Raymond Léopold Bruckerger, The History of Jesus Christ, page 161

Questions about kills one's darlings

What is kills one's darlings the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Kills one's darlings is the third-person singular simple present indicative of kill one's darlings.

Words near kills one's darlings in the dictionary

  1. Killpacks
  2. killproof
  3. kills
  4. kills it
  5. kills off
  6. kills one's darlings
  7. kills oneself
  8. kills someone dead
  9. kills the fatted calf
  10. kills the goose that lays the golden eggs
  11. kills the messenger

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kills one's darlings (page history and authors); kill one's darlings (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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