Verb

To succeed; to prosper, be lucky.

*:

*:And yf I maye fynde suche a knyghte that hath all these vertues / he may drawe oute this swerd oute of the shethe / for I haue ben at kyng Ryons / it was told me ther were passyng good knyghtes / and he and alle his knyghtes haue assayed it and none can spede

*, I.2.4.vii:

Aristotle must find out the motion of Euripus; Pliny must needs see Vesuvius; but how sped they? One loseth goods, another his life.

*18^thc. , (Oliver Goldsmith), Introductory to Switzerland

*:At night returning, every labor sped , / He sits him down the monarch of a shed: / Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys, / His children’s looks, that brighten at the blaze;

To help someone, to give them fortune; to aid or favour.

:

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:Fortune speed us!

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:with rising gales that speed their happy flight

(label) To go fast.

:

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}

(label) To exceed the speed limit.

:

(label) To increase the rate at which something occurs.

*1982 , Carole Offir & Carole Wade, Human sexuality, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, p.454:

*:It is possible that the uterine contractions speed the sperm along.

*2004 , James M. Cypher & James L. Dietz, The process of economic development, Routledge, p.359:

*:Such interventions can help to speed the process of reducing CBRs and help countries pass through the demographic transition threshold more quickly.

To be under the influence of stimulant drugs, especially amphetamines.

(label) To be expedient.

:

(label) To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:sped with spavins

*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

*:A dire dilemma! either way I'm sped . / If foes, they write, if friends, they read, me dead.

(label) To wish success or good fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.

*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

*:Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.

To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.

*(Edward Fairfax) (c.1580-1635)

*:He sped him thence home to his habitation.

To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.

*(John Ayliffe) (1676-1732)

*:Judicial actsare sped in open court at the instance of one or both of the parties.

Verb

(en verb)

To put to death; to extinguish the life of.

Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined.

There is conclusive evidence that smoking kills .

(fiction) To invent a story that conveys the death of (a character).

Shakespeare killed Romeo and Juliet for drama.

To render inoperative.

He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.

(1978):

:: Peter : Ask Childers if it was worth his arm.

:: Policeman : What did you do to his arm, Peter?

:: Peter''': I '''killed it, with a machine gun.

(figuratively) To stop, cease or render void; to terminate.

The editor decided to kill the story.

The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it.

My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes.

(transitive, figuratively, hyperbole) To amaze, exceed, stun or otherwise incapacitate.

That night, she was dressed to kill .

That joke always kills me.

(figuratively) To produce feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion in.

It kills me to throw out three whole turkeys, but I can't get anyone to take them and they've already started to go bad.

It kills me to learn how many poor people are practically starving in this country while rich moguls spend such outrageous amounts on useless luxuries.

To use up or to waste.

I'm just doing this to kill time.

He told the bartender, pointing at the bottle of scotch he planned to consume, "Leave it, I'm going to kill the bottle."

(transitive, figuratively, informal) To exert an overwhelming effect on.

Between the two of us, we killed the rest of the case of beer.

Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate anymore.

(transitive, figuratively, hyperbole) To overpower, overwhelm or defeat.

The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations.

To force a company out of business.

(informal) To produce intense pain.

You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill .

(figuratively, informal, hyperbole) To punish severely.

My parents are going to kill me!

(sports) To strike a ball or similar object with such force and placement as to make a shot that is impossible to defend against, usually winning a point.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=February 4 , author=Gareth Roberts , title=Wales 19-26 England , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=That close call encouraged Wales to launch another series of attacks that ended when lock Louis Deacon killed the ball illegally in the shadow of England's posts.}}

(mathematics, transitive, idiomatic, informal) To cause to assume the value zero.

(computing, Internet, IRC) To disconnect (a user) forcibly from the network.