[f. KILL v. + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which kills; a slayer, butcher.
1535. Coverdale, Tobit iii. 9. Thou kyller of thy huszbandes.
1552. Huloet, Kyller of mise and rattes, myoph[o]nos.
1696. Statutes (Scottish) c. 33 title, Act against killers of black fish, and destroyers of the fry and smolts of salmon.
1741. Middleton, Cicero, I. vi. 538. One Licinius, a killer of the victims for sacrifice.
1829. Carlyle, Misc., Voltaire (1872), II. 131. He has his coat of darkness,… like that other Killer of Giants.
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., ix. (1885), 225. She is a killer and a cannibal among other insects.
b. fig. in various senses.
1555. L. Sanders, Lett., in Foxe, A. & M. (1631), III. XI. 141/2. Christ the killer of death.
1819. Hermit in Lond., II. 170. She is the most desperate killer of time I ever met with.
1838. Mary Howitt, Birds & Fl., Ivy-bush, iv. What a killer of care, old tree, wert thou!
2. A name of the grampus, Orca gladiator, and other ferocious cetaceans of kindred genera.
1725. Dudley, in Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 265. These Killers are from twenty to thirty Feet long, and have Teeth in both Jaws…. They … set upon a young Whale, and will bait him like so many Bull-dogs.
1898. F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 195–6. A large bowhead rose near the ship…. Three ‘killers’ were attacking him at once, like wolves worrying a bull…. The ‘killer,’ or Orca gladiator, is a true whale, but, like the cachalot, has teeth.
3. An effective angler’s bait.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxxv. § 4 (1689), 207. An admirable Fly, and in great repute for a killer.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 109. There are likewise two Moths … great killers about twilight in a serene evening.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, v. (1880), 155. If he cannot find a killer among them his hopes of sport are very small.
4. A club of hard wood for killing fish with.
1890. in Cent. Dict.
5. An agent used to neutralize the active property of anything, e.g., to neutralize a color, to remove spots or stains, prevent pitch-stains on pine-boards, or the like.
1893. in Funk’s Standard Dict.
