killing
/ˈkɪlɪŋ
/noun
An act of causing death, especially deliberately: the community was shocked by the brutal killings [mass noun]: years of killing and destruction...
- The village of Murma is in shock over the brutal killings of two young boys by their teacher.
- The brutal killings, many of which were committed using knives and swords, had begun.
- Officers at the scene said it was one of the most brutal killings they had ever seen.
Synonyms
murder, taking of life, assassination, homicide, manslaughter, liquidation, elimination, putting/doing to death, execution, dispatch, martyrdom;
slaughter, massacre, butchery, carnage, bloodshed, destruction, decimation, extermination, eradication, annihilation, wiping out, extinction;
patricide, matricide, parricide, infanticide, filicide
literary slaying
adjective
1Causing death: a killing disease...
- Most are fighting chickens he breeds for death in the killing pits across the state line in Louisiana.
- This killing stock transmits death to the branches upon it.
- Cancer is one of the four big killing diseases in childhood; after leukaemia, tumours of the central nervous system are the most common cancers in childhood.
Synonyms
deadly, lethal, fatal, mortal, death-dealing, causing death, life-threatening, final, destructive, dangerous;
murderous, homicidal
literary deathly
2 informal Exhausting or unbearable: a killing schedule...
- Fatigue is the killing weight of expectation; and that burden is another good reason for fearing the worst.
- DH is the supervisor of the maintenance area and is having problems keeping people, and the killing schedule is a big part of the reason.
- Sounds like a killing timetable dear - try to take care of yourself in all this!
Synonyms
exhausting, gruelling, punishing, taxing, draining, wearing, prostrating, sapping, crushing, tiring, fatiguing, debilitating, enervating, arduous, tough, demanding, onerous, strenuous, rigorous, relentless, unsparing, grinding, formidable
informal murderous, back-breaking
British informal knackering
unbearable, intolerable, unendurable, not to be borne, more than one can bear, more than flesh and blood can stand, insupportable, impossible;
cruel, heartbreaking, painful, excruciating, agonizing, grievous
2.1 dated Extremely funny.
Synonyms
hilarious, hysterically funny, outrageously funny, too funny for words, uproarious, riotous, comic, comical, chucklesome, amusing, laughable, absurd, ludicrous, outrageous
informal priceless, side-splitting, a scream, a hoot, rib-tickling, killingly funny, screamingly funny
Phrases
make a killing
Derivatives
killingly
/ adverb ...- The story gives us one killingly funny observation after another: ‘Parker and his graduate student colleagues liked to theorize about the real world.’
- It seems a strange role for him, very British in its humour and, on the page at least, killingly unfunny.
- To my mind, Alan's film is daring, experimental, ballsy - it's something new, for Christ's sake, new! - and killingly funny.