killing

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   very funny

   a killing joke

2. 2
   adj

   Devastatingly attractive.

   Should true Proportion ev'ry Mortal grace, / And Semetry be seen in ev'ry Face: / Beauty no longer would be thought divine, / Nor would its Charms with half the Lustre shine: / No courtly Dame a killing Look could boast, / If once the Foils of Homeliness were lost.

3. 3
   adj

   That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny.

   Livia found her ‘killing’, and derived such amusement from her Martinique French that he was forced to enjoy her as well.

4. 4
   noun

   The act of killing.

   In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   A large amount of money.

   He made a killing on the stock market.

7. 7
   noun

   the act of terminating a life

8. 8
   noun

   an event that causes someone to die

Etymology

From Middle English kyllyng; equivalent to kill + -ing.