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killing

killing

51 6.0
A large sudden profit made quickly
  • noun
  • /ˈkɪlɪŋ/
  • Informal
translation icon : fortuna
  • With the surge in demand for housing, many real estate agents are making a killing in commissions.
  • make a killing

They built a network over there where they making a killing watching y'all.

Examples

  • Last year, the investors made a killing by betting on rising tech stocks.

  • - Now here's your chance to make a real killing.

  • Listen, we're gonna make a real good killing next year.

  • Not quite like making a killing on the stock market, but close enough.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Price is right, we make a killing.

  • At twenty bucks a pop, they were making a killing.

  • If you played a short-term gold game recently, you made a killing.

    Academic text (2010)
  • You could be making a killing out there consulting, but you're laying brick.

  • I've made a killing during the past two months with paranormal and New Age titles.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • After launching the new product, the company made a killing during the holiday season.

Synonyms

cleanup
vskilling
  • Slang
4 5.2

A very large profit made in a short time

emphasizes that the profit was sudden and came unexpectedly

Antonyms

439 1.4

The event when you stop having someone or something important

Idioms

21 4.9

To earn a lot of money very quickly and easily

2 8.9

A way to show strong frustration or disbelief about someone's words and actions

Compounds

honor killing
  • Offensive
10 8.6

The killing of a family member, often a woman or girl, by relatives who think she brought shame

9 8.8

An area where many people were killed during war or violence

7 6.3

Ending a person's life to stop their pain when they are very ill

contract killing
  • Offensive
4 7.9

Murder carried out by a hired person for money

1 8.3

An area where many people die, often on a battlefield

ritual killing
  • Offensive
1 9.7

An event where someone or an animal is put to death during a religious ceremony to please a god

drive-by killing
  • Offensive
1 8.5

An act of shooting someone to death from a moving car

How Profitable

killing
  • Informal
51 6.0
bonanza
25 7.1
windfall
35 5.1
profit
  • Specialized
2.0
gain
  • Specialized
559 2.3

Surface Forms

killing singular
killings plural

Morphology

killing = kill (opaque) = kill + ing

The sense 'a killing' meaning a large, sudden profit is an idiomatic/metaphorical extension that is not predictable from the literal meaning 'to cause death'.

Etymology

Killing for a big profit comes from a slang use of the verb kill to mean 'to beat' or 'to win'. A helpful way to remember it is that to 'make a killing' is to win a lot of money quickly.