kill

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To put to death.
• intransitive verb To deprive of life.
• intransitive verb To put an end to; extinguish.
• intransitive verb To destroy a vitally essential quality in.
• intransitive verb To cause to cease operating; turn off.
• intransitive verb To tire out completely; exhaust.
• intransitive verb To pass (time) in aimless activity.
• intransitive verb To consume entirely; finish off.
• intransitive verb Sports To prevent the opposing team from scoring on a power play during (a penalty), as in ice hockey.
• intransitive verb To cause extreme pain or discomfort to.
• intransitive verb To mark for deletion; rule out.
• intransitive verb To thwart passage of; veto.
• intransitive verb Informal To overwhelm with hilarity, pleasure, or admiration.
• intransitive verb To hit (a ball) with great force.
• intransitive verb To hit (a ball) with such force as to make a return impossible, as in volleyball.
• intransitive verb To cause death or extinction; be fatal.
• intransitive verb Informal To make such a strong impression as to overcome.
• intransitive verb Informal To be very painful or uncomfortable.
• noun The act of killing.
• noun An animal killed, especially in hunting.
• noun A person killed or to be killed.
• noun An event in which large numbers of individuals are killed.
• noun The act of attacking and destroying an enemy aircraft, vessel, or missile.
• noun Sports In games such as volleyball and tennis, a shot that is so forcefully hit that it cannot be returned.
• idiom (at/on) Present at the moment of triumph.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of killing, as game.
• See kiln.
• noun A channel, creek, stream, or bed of a river: used especially as an element of American names in the parts originally settled by the Dutch: as, Kill van Kull (the strait between Staten Island and New Jersey), Catskill, Sehuylkill.
• In leather manufacturing, to remove the natural grease from (the skin) in making furs or robes from hair skins.
• In tennis, to strike (the ball) with such force as to make it impossible for the opponent to return it.
• noun An animal that has been killed, as by a beast of prey or by a sportsman; a bag of game.
• To strike, beat, cut, or stab; strike down.
• To deprive (a human being or any animal, or, in more recent use, a vegetable) of life, by any means; put to death; slay.
• To destroy; render wholly inactive, inefficient, etc.; deaden; quell; overpower; subdue; suppress; cancel: as, sudden showers kill the wind; a thick carpet kills the sound of footsteps.
• To nullify or neutralize the active qualities of; deprive (a thing) of its characteristic active or useful qualities; weaken; dilute: as, to kill grain (by overheating it in the process of grinding); to kill fire-damp (to mix or dilute it with atmospheric air); to kill wire (by stretching it so as to destroy its ductility).
• To reject; discard: as, to kill a paragraph in a report; to kill an article in type
• Synonyms Kill, Slay, Murder, Assassinate, Slaughter, Massacre, Despatch. Kill is the general word, meaning simply to deprive of life, whether wrongfully (Ex. xx. 13), accidentally, in self-defense, in war, or by process of law. Slay is a less commonplace word with the same meaning as kill. Murder is the general word for killing wrongfully, especially with premeditation. Assassinate means to kill wrongfully by surprise, suddenly, or by secret assault. To slaughter is to kill brutally or in great numbers; massacre is more intense than slaughter, meaning to kill indiscriminately, without need or without warrant, rapidly or in great numbers. To despatch is to kill with promptness or quickness, and generally in a quiet way. Kill, slay, slaughter, and despatch may apply to ordinary and proper taking of the life of an animal. Kill and slaughter are the ordinary words used to describe the work of a butcher.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete A kiln.
• noun A channel or arm of the sea; a river; a stream; ; -- used also in composition
• noun The act of killing.
• noun An animal killed in the hunt, as by a beast of prey.
• transitive verb To deprive of life, animal or vegetable, in any manner or by any means; to render inanimate; to put to death; to slay.
• transitive verb To destroy; to ruin
• transitive verb To cause to cease; to quell; to calm; to still.