killing

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɪl.ɪŋ/

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• Rhymes: -ɪlɪŋ

killing

1. present participle and gerund of kill

killing (comparative more killing, superlative most killing)

1. That literally deprives of life; lethal, deadly, fatal.
2. (dated) Devastatingly attractive.
   • 1756, Edward Ward, A Compleat and Humorous Account of All the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the Cities of London and Westminster, page 134:

     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.

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     He sprang to open the door for the ladies, when they retired, with the most killing grace […]

3. That makes one ‘die’ with laughter; very funny.
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 471:

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

killing (countable and uncountable, plural killings)

1. An instance of someone being killed.
   • 1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment‎, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 180:

     The outrage over the brutal killings of peaceful demonstrators in Lhasa in March 1989 quickly faded after the massacres in Beijing in June.

2. (informal, usually as make a killing) A large amount of money.

   He made a killing on the stock market.

   • 1916, Melville Davisson Post, “The Man Hunters”, in The Saturday Evening Post‎:

     The result is, in the end, the superintendent agrees to hold up another race, and the victim arranges to obtain all the money he can get in order to bet it on a sure thing. When the great "killing" is made, and the stripped victim goes back to consult with the superintendent […]

From Old Norse ketlingr, diminutive form of ketta (“cat”). Cognate with Swedish källing.

• IPA^(key): /kilenɡ/, [ˈkʰileŋ]

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killing c (singular definite killingen, plural indefinite killinger)

1. kitten (young cat)
2. leveret (young hare)

From Old Norse kiðlingr.

killing m (definite singular killingen, indefinite plural killinger, definite plural killingene)

1. a goatling

• geitekilling

• “killing” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse kiðlingr.

killing m (definite singular killingen, indefinite plural killingar, definite plural killingane)

1. a goatling

• geitekilling

• “killing” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Swedish kiþlinger, from Old Norse kiðlingr, corresponding to kid (now fawn, before all baby animals) +‎ -ling (diminutive suffix).

killing c

1. a kid (young goat)

• källing