kill

«kill» in Mova's school dictionary: To make a person, animal or plant die — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (kill, kills, killed, killing); noun (a kill — an animal killed by another)

meaning for a pupil

1) To make a person, animal or plant die. tree →

2) Informal: to cause great pain: «My feet are killing me». tree →

3) Informal: to stop something: kill the engine, kill time (do something while you wait). tree →

4) A noun: an animal killed by a hunter, such as a lion's kill. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science: food chains — predators kill prey to eat; frost can kill plants; germs can be killed by soap and heat; some poisons kill. In safety: dangerous things like cars, fire, deep water and electricity can kill — that is why the rules are strict. In stories: a villain or a dragon might be killed. Informal phrases are not real killing: «kill time», «killing me», «dressed to kill». Phrases: kill germs, killed in an accident, kill time, killer whale, weed killer.

examples

• Lions kill zebras for food. tree →
• Soap kills germs on your hands. tree →
• The frost killed the tomato plants. tree →
• Electricity can kill — never touch wires. tree →
• We played cards to kill time at the airport. tree →
• My new shoes are killing me! tree →
• Killer whales are actually large dolphins. tree →
• Weed killer is poison, so keep away from it. tree →

note

Regular verb: killed. Many informal uses do not mean death: «kill time», «My legs are killing me», «If Mum finds out she'll kill me» (she'll be very cross). Read the context. «Killer whale» is another name for orca.

In the corpora

• Antibiotics kill bacteria but do nothing against colds, which are caused by viruses.
• Leopards drag their kills, sometimes as heavy as themselves, up into trees where lions and hyenas cannot steal them.
• Sharks don't hunt humans; bites are very rare and often a mistake, and people kill around 100 million sharks a year.
• Cork comes from the thick bark of the cork oak, peeled about every 9 years without killing the tree.
• Sharks kill fewer than about ten people a year worldwide, while people kill tens of millions of sharks every year.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «kill» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.