hit man

noun

1
: a professional assassin who works for a crime syndicate
2

Examples of hit man in a Sentence

She hired a hit man to kill her ex-husband.
Recent Examples on the Web Fassbender plays the hit man like a runway model — photogenic but blank, an automaton’s version of Kevin Spacey’s hammy villain in Se7en. Armond White, National Review, 17 Nov. 2023 The director will go into detailed explanations about why the unnamed antihero, played by Michael Fassbender, is not just a hit man but a very, very unreliable narrator. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 8 Nov. 2023 Two years later, a hit man nearly assassinated him in his kitchen. Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2023 Keaton plays an underworld hit man who is diagnosed with dementia. Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 Sep. 2023 Following young hotel proprietor Winston Scott (played by Ian McShane in the franchise films and Colin Woodell in the series), The Continental dives into how Winston would ultimately seize the hotel to take his place at the helm of the hit man sanctuary. Sydney Odman, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Sep. 2023 The early years of crypto were defined by dark web marketplaces such as Silk Road, where curious buyers could purchase anything from bespoke drugs to hit men, using Bitcoin as a payment method. Byleo Schwartz, Fortune Crypto, 27 Sep. 2023 Powell plays Gary, a psychology professor moonlighting as a fake hit man who participates in sting operations designed to trap folks looking to have someone whacked. Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Sep. 2023 Redoubtable supporting player Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) here offers a career-boosting, range-flaunting turn as a geeky academic who stumbles into doing a very specific kind of undercover work for the police: posing as, per the title, a hit man. Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 Sep. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hit man.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1963, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of hit man was in 1963

Dictionary Entries Near hit man

Cite this Entry

“Hit man.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hit%20man. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.

More from Merriam-Webster on hit man

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