kill
/ˈkɪl/ verb A1- To put to death; to extinguish the life of. · Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and hard drugs combined.
- To render inoperative. · He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
- 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.
- To amaze, exceed, stun, or otherwise incapacitate. · That night, she was dressed to kill.· That joke always kills me.
- 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.
- 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.
- To use up or to waste. · I'm just doing this to kill time.
- 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.
Plural kill · He/she/it kills · Past killed · Past participle killed · -ing form killing
Verb forms
- Base form
- kill
- He/she/it
- kills
- Past
- killed
- Past participle
- killed
- -ing form
- killing
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
She was going to the butcher’s, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she has got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed.”
If you will kill for me the Wicked Witch of the West, I will bestow upon you a great many brains, and such good brains that you will be the wisest man in all the Land of Oz.”
“I thought you asked Dorothy to kill the Witch,” said the Scarecrow, in surprise.
I don’t care who kills her.
Other matches
Learn kill in real texts
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