hit squad
6
8.4
- noun
- /hɪt skwɑd/
- Offensive
:
escuadrón de la muerte
- Aman was assassinated in November 1974 by a hit squad sent on the instructions of the new Ethiopian strongman, Mengistu Halle Mariam.
Was he involved at all with any of the the hit squads that were being trained, the paramilitary hit squads?
- Was he involved at all with any of the the hit squads that were being trained, the paramilitary hit squads?
- And I don't have any real hope that she will stand up to him and not make the Justice Department Trump's own hit squad.
Examples
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Indeed, in 2013, Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, two leftist leaders, were executed by terrorist hit squads.
Academic text (2015) -
Last December, an Iraqi hit squad tracked down Abu Sadeq, in exile in Iran, and killed him.
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Or until Faso's hit squad was caught.
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Three days in we caught wind that a Serbian hit squad was after our couple.
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If all else failed, local leadership, in consultation with outside leadership, passed a death sentence that was carried out by select hit squads.
Academic text (1993) -
Moreover, the FBI itself claimed it had no evidence of any Libyan hit squads in the US.
Academic text (2002) -
It was infested with Shiite militias as well as every variety of coward and criminal, and police units often acted as anti-Sunni hit squads.
Academic text (2008) -
Iraqi officials on Monday accused al-Hashemi of running a hit squad that killed government officials.
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President Premadasa dispatched government hit squads to wipe out the JVP by night.
Synonyms
23
9.7
A secret group that kills political opponents or accused criminals without a trial
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is partially compositional: 'squad' is a small team and 'hit' (in its criminal sense) denotes a targeted killing, so a learner who knows the criminal sense of 'hit' can infer a team organized to carry out killings. However, many B1 learners know only the basic physical sense of 'hit' and may not predict the specialized, criminal/hired-killer nuance or the conventionalized collocation, so the relation is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Hit squad comes from the idea of a small squad sent to carry out a hit, that is, a sudden 'attack' or 'killing'. Imagine a team whose job is one violent 'hit', and that is why the phrase means a group hired to kill or attack someone.