Webster's English Dictionary

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kill

1. kill \'kil\ vb [ME killen] 1a: to deprive of life  1b1: to slaughter (as 
   a hog) for food  1b2: to convert a food animal into (as pork) by 
   slaughtering  2a: to put an end to {~ competition}  2b: DEFEAT, VETO  2c: 
   to mark for omission  3a: to destroy the vital or essential quality of  3b: 
   to cause to stop {~ the motor}  3c: to check the flow of current through  
   4: to cause to elapse {~ time}  5a: to cause extreme pain to  5b: to tire 
   almost to the point of collapse  6: to hit (a ball) so hard in a racket 
   game that a return is impossible  7: to consume (as a drink) totally  : to 
   deprive one of life , EXECUTE mean to deprive of life. KILL merely states 
   the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner; SLAY is a chiefly 
   literary term implying deliberateness and violence but not necessarily 
   motive; MURDER specifically implies stealth and motive and premeditation 
   and therefore full moral responsibility; ASSASSINATE applies to deliberate 
   killing openly or secretly but for impersonal motives; DISPATCH implies 
   nothing deside speed and directness in putting to death; EXECUTE applies to 
   the carrying out of a sentence to death SYN syn KILL, SLAY, MURDER, 
   ASSASSINATE, DISPATCH 
2. kill n 1: an act or instance of killing  2: something killed : as  2a1: 
   an animal shot in a hunt  2a2: animals killed in a hunt, season, or 
   particular period of time  2b: an enemy airplane, submarine, or ship 
   destroyed by military action  2c: a return shot in a racket game that is 
   too hard for an opponent to hand le
3. kill n [D kil] often cap  : CHANNEL, CREEK - used chiefly in place names 
   in Delaware a nd New York