Englishkilling
noun
the community was shocked by the brutal killing:
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.
□ make a killing
informal
investors are set to make a killing in the sell-off:
make a large profit, make a/one's fortune, gain, profit, make money, be successful, be lucky;
informal clean up, strike it rich, rake it in, make a/one's pile, make a packet, make a bundle, make a pretty penny;
British, informal make a bomb;
North American, informal make big bucks.
adjective
1 a killing blow:
deadly, lethal, fatal, mortal, death-dealing, causing death, life-threatening, final, destructive, dangerous;
murderous, homicidal;
literary deathly.
2 informal the suspense will be killing:
exhausting, grueling, 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.
3 informal the suspense will be killing:
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.
4 informal , dated “I think he's absolutely killing,” said Muriel:
hilarious, hysterically funny, outrageously funny, too funny for words, uproarious, riotous, comic, comical, chucklesome, amusing, laughable, absurd, ludicrous, outrageous;
informal priceless, sidesplitting, a scream, a hoot, rib-tickling, killingly funny, screamingly funny.