killing

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Act of one that kills

Nouns

1. killing, homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, murder most foul; bloodshed, bloodletting, slaughter, carnage, butchery, extermination, decimation, annihilation, genocide, final solution, ethnic cleansing, depopulation, pogrom, massacre, war, warfare; biocide, holocaust, pogrom, purge, hecatomb, parricide, fratricide, patricide, matricide, infanticide, regicide; ritual murder or suicide; serial killing; mercy killing, euthanasia; mark of Cain. Slang, hit; snuff film. See death.

2. (method of killing) death blow, finishing stroke, coup de grâce, quietus; execution, capital punishment, firing squad, gassing, electrocution, evisceration, disembowelment, defenestration; execution; martyrdom; poisoning, injection; suffocation, smothering, strangulation, choking, garrote, gallows, hanging, beheading, [burning at the] stake, stoning, lapidation, decapitation, crucifixion, guillotine, immolation, vaporization, violent death, burial alive; [assisted] suicide, self-destruction, suttee, seppuku, hara-kiri, felo-de-se, wrist slitting, immolation; drive-by shooting; final solution; traffic death, fatal accident, casualty, fatality. Slang, Dutch act or cure, electric cure, joy ride, air dance, necktie party or sociable; bough, chates, forks, furca, leafless tree, stalk, swing. See punishment.

3. butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, cutthroat, garrotter, bravo, thug; executioner, hangman, headsman, firing squad, sniper; regicide, matricide, parricide, fratricide, infanticide; suicide, solitaire; serial killer; poison, germicide, insecticide, Agent Orange; gun, rifle (see arms). Slang, hatchet or finger man, hit man, necktie party, ice man, rat boy.

4. (killing of animals) hunting, coursing, shooting; sportsman, huntsman (see pursuit); slaughterhouse, shambles, abattoir, packing house; charnel house.

Verbs

1. kill, put to death, slay, dispatch, shed blood; murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, immolate, massacre, annihilate; do away with, put an end to, put away, put to sleep; carry off, lay low; run over; pick off; do for, put out of the way, sluice; sign one's death warrant; disappear. Slang, liquidate, bump off, brain, take for a ride, knock off, wipe out, zap, do in, rub out, blow away, grease, snuff out, zap, cack, deep six, dust, drill, frag, hose, off, waste, burke, cap, chill, nuke, take out or down, grease, smoke, stiff, whack, cream, hush, jugulate.

2. execute; strangle, garrote, hang, lynch, throttle, choke, stifle, poison, gas, electrocute, suffocate, disembowel, bury alive, draw and quarter, stone, smother, asphyxiate, drown, behead; put to the sword, stone, deal a death blow, wade knee-deep in blood. Slang, cook, dance, nub, scrag, sizzle, fry, burn, ding, hose down, smoke, string up.

3. kill oneself, blow out one's brains, commit suicide, take one's own life. Slang, pull the plug, see oneself off, eat one's gun.

Adjectives

1. killing, murderous, sanguinary, bloodstained, bloodthirsty, homicidal, red-handed; bloody, ensanguined, gory.

2. mortal, fatal, lethal, deadly, internecine, suicidal, biocidal.

Phrases — murder will out.

Quotations — Assassination has never changed the history of the world (Benjamin Disraeli), Television has brought back murder into the home— where it belongs (Alfred Hitchcock), Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god (Jean Rostand), For who would bear the whips and scorns of time... when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin? (Shakespeare), Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful; you might as well live (Dorothy Parker), Assassination is the extreme form of censorship (G. B. Shaw), Murder most foul, as in the best it is, but this most foul, strange, and unnatural (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see life, reproduction.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

1. [Destructive]

Syn. mortal, lethal, fatal; see deadly 1 , destructive 2 .

2. [*Funny]

Syn. ludicrous, overpowering, irresistible; see funny 1 .

n.

1. [Murder]

Syn. slaying, assassination, slaughter; see crime 2 , murder .

2. [*A sudden Great profit]

Syn. windfall, bonanza, coup; see profit 2 , success 2 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

murder, homicide, slaying, manslaughter, execution, extermination, assassination, slaughter, foul play, death, fatality.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I noun The crime of murdering someone: blood, homicide, murder. Slang: hit. See HELP. II adjective Informal Extremely funny: hilarious, priceless, sidesplitting. Informal: rich. See LAUGHTER.