KILLS OFF Synonyms: 49 Similar and Opposite Words

kills off

verb

present tense third-person singular of kill off

as in cuts down

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for kills off

Verb

Using sine wave generators and pink lighting so saturated it essentially blots out all other color and shadow, Young and Zazeela created a space that’s somehow both static and full of life.

— Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 4 Oct. 2026
The phenomenon, where smoke blots out the blue sky overhead, making the air appear milky-white or even orange, has become a relatively regular fixture of summers where out-of-control wildfires in the West bring noxious smoke downwind.

— Matthew Cappucci, Washington Post, 17 July 2026

Definition of blots out

Verb

Notably, this happens after Odysseus slaughters Penelope’s suitors and tells Telemachus to kill the female slaves who have slept with them.

— Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 17 July 2026
When a wandering wolf threatens his fragile peace and slaughters his flock, Gaspard, blinded by rage, embarks on a perilous quest for vengeance — one that will lead him to the farthest reaches of his sorrow and guilt.

— Kevin Giraud, Variety, 22 June 2026

Definition of slaughters

Verb

And that’s a lot of energy to shed as a vehicle comes blaring back into Earth’s thick atmosphere, a process that typically annihilates objects returning from space unless they are precisely designed to survive the trip.

— Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 16 July 2026
Matter is so dominant in our universe that any antimatter typically encounters matter quickly and annihilates.

— Quanta Magazine, Quanta Magazine, 15 June 2026

Definition of annihilates

Verb

But as Marty Supreme proved last year, debuting after the rest of the competition can also feel a bit like being the lone straggler in a bike race who escapes the cascading crash that takes out everyone else.

— Nate Jones, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026
Personal loans aren't solving the problem - A common pattern MMI sees is that someone takes out a personal loan to consolidate high-interest credit card debt, then runs the credit cards back up again, ending up with both debts instead of one.

— Andreina Rodriguez, CNBC, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of takes out

Verb

The transition to the climax, when Odysseus massacres his wife’s suitors with the help of Athena’s magic and son Telemachus (Alan Stenson), is also fairly rushed.

— Elaina Patton, IndieWire, 24 July 2026
The Polish government considers the Volhynia and Galicia massacres a genocide, and holds Bandera equal in infamy to Nazi war criminals of the same era.

— Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 25 Aug. 2025

Definition of massacres

Verb

Maggie Greene was introduced in The Walking Dead season 2 as an open-hearted survivor who was just beginning to grapple with the barbaric nature of her new reality after the Wildfire virus decimates humanity.

— Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 25 July 2026
This move effectively decimates the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has conducted federal funds to NPR and PBS for nearly 60 years.

— Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 7 Aug. 2025

Definition of decimates

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

kills

kills off

kills time

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Kills off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kills%20off. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of kills off

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

perseverate

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Popular in Wordplay

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Popular

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

Games & Quizzes