kill

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To make a person, animal, or plant die.

   The disease has killed thousands of people in the region.

2. 2
   verb

   To stop a machine or engine from working (informal).

   He killed the engine and sat in silence.

3. 3
   verb

   To make someone feel extremely tired or in pain (informal).

   My feet are killing me after that long walk.

Common collocations

• clean kill Adjective + noun
• make a kill Verb + noun
• kill off Verb + adverb

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”). * Perhaps from unattested Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”). * Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell). * Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole). Compa…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images