Word.ws English Dictionary

making a killing

making a killing is the present participle and gerund of make a killing.

Meaning of make a killing

Verb

make a killing (third-person singular simple present makes a killing, present participle making a killing, simple past and past participle made a killing)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To win or earn a large amount of money.
    • "Now if they were playing faro I could make a killing."1913, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 5, in The Iron Trail: An Alaskan Romance

Questions about making a killing

What is making a killing the present participle and gerund of?
Making a killing is the present participle and gerund of make a killing.

Words near making a killing in the dictionary

  1. making a good fist of
  2. making a grab
  3. making a habit of
  4. making a hash of
  5. making a joke of
  6. making a killing
  7. making a leg
  8. making a light
  9. making a lip
  10. making a living
  11. making a long arm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: making a killing (page history and authors); make a killing (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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