bump off

See also: bumpoff and bump-off

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

bump off (third-person singular simple present bumps off, present participle bumping off, simple past and past participle bumped off)

1. (chiefly US, idiomatic) To kill, especially to murder.
   • 1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 34, in Gunsight Pass:

     "Well, he's been wrong ever since I had to bump off Tim Harrigan. Talks about a fair break. As if I had a chance to let the old man get to a gun."

   • 1990 January 12, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic):

     The snow goons aren't moving! They're asleep! Now's our chance to go bump 'em off!

   • 2006 February 8, Caryn James, “CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Ordinary Killers: A Theme of the Movie Moment”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 Dec. 2008:

     In Match Point, when a mistress is about to blab to a wife, threatening a man's comfortable life, his solution is to bump off the girlfriend.

2. (chiefly UK, idiomatic) To cut class; to play truant.

   Synonym: bunk off

Related terms

• bumpoff