bump off
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU): (file)
Verb
bump off (third-person singular simple present bumps off, present participle bumping off, simple past and past participle bumped off)
- (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."
- 2006, Caryn James, "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Ordinary Killers: A Theme of the Movie Moment," New York Times, 8 Feb. (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.
- (chiefly UK, idiomatic) To cut class; to play truant.
Related terms
- bumpoff (n.)