killing
//ˈkɪl.ɪŋ//
Forms
- Comparative
- more killing
- Superlative
- most killing
- Plural
- killings
Definitions
1.That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
2.That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny.(informal)
- Livia found her ‘killing’, and derived such amusement from her Martinique French that he was forced to enjoy her as well.
1.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.
- A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before dying from self-inflicted injuries early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the tiny Balkan nation’s worst mass killings.
2.A large amount of money.(informal)
- He made a killing on the stock market.
3.The act of killing.
- In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing.
1.present participle and gerund of kill
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3259
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Word family
Etymology
From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.