Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or action of causing death, as of a person.
  • noun A sudden large profit.
  • adjective Causing or apt to cause death; fatal.
  • adjective Thoroughly exhausting.
  • adjective Informal Hilarious.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of slaying or depriving of life.
  • noun In the manufacture of steel, the practice of stopping or preventing the evolution of gas in the steel. Steel is most commonly killed with silicon or aluminium.
  • Depriving of life; deadly; doing execution.
  • Overpowering; irresistible: generally in the sense of fascinating, bewitching, charming, so as to attract and compel admiration: as, killing coquetries.
  • So terrible or frightful as almost to kill one; exceedingly severe; exhausting; wearing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Literally, that kills; having power to kill; fatal; in a colloquial sense, conquering; captivating; irresistible.
  • noun The act or process of causing a living organism to die.
  • noun An unusually large gain in a financial or business transaction or enterprise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of kill.
  • adjective That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
  • adjective Devastatingly attractive.
  • adjective That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny.
  • noun an instance of someone being killed
  • noun informal A large amount of money.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of terminating a life
  • adjective very funny
  • noun a very large profit
  • noun an event that causes someone to die

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From kill +‎ -ing.

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Examples

  • "Then," pursued Marcelline, "you are willing to stand by and see her slowly murdered, inch by inch, by this white-faced devil, who leans over her and professes to love her, but is killing her -- _killing her_, Dieu des dieux!

    Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 of Popular Literature and Science Various

  • I was horrified to hear the term killing field in relation to the toll AIDS is taking in countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia when it comes to this pandemic.

    Message to Jenna Bush: The Congolese children have no hope as they are raped 2007

  • A hate filled zionist who believes in killing is calling a hindu who believes in nonviolence and has jewish relatives an ‘aryan nation’ person.

    Think Progress » Protest Turnout: A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Lies 2005

  • For me as a pubic land deer hunter, the killing is a REALLY small part .. lol

    Sharp-Dressed Man? 2009

  • For me as a pubic land deer hunter, the killing is a REALLY small part .. lol

    Sharp-Dressed Man? 2009

  • If you only hunt for huge HORNS, best you stay at home, as the killing is the last straw and the hunt is over.

    The Mysterious Case of the Shrinking Elk Head 2008

  • No doubt Coppola and his screenwriter, John Milius, were fully aware of the plot of Die Walküre, the ingenious portrayal of the helicopter gunships as modernized, mechanized Valkyries — the music both romanticizes combat and wryly points out the absurdity of ancient notions of chivalry in a war where the killing is almost industrialized.

    In the corners of my mind Matthew Guerrieri 2008

  • "Humph!" said Dan, as he speared up an apple out of the basket on the point of his knife, "ain't that something like what you call killing two ----"

    The Wide, Wide World Susan Warner 1852

  • In a statement, the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, called on the Syrian president to stop what he called the "killing machine and end the bloodshed."

    NYT > Home Page By NADA BAKRI 2011

  • In a statement, the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, called on the Syrian president to stop what he called the "killing machine and end the bloodshed."

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed NADA BAKRI 2011

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