Counterkilling

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A killing carried out in response to another killing.

    "The mob pummeled the men suspected of being thugs, and this normally tranquil spot exploded into a melee of killings and counterkillings that left nearly 30 people dead."

Example

More examples

"The mob pummeled the men suspected of being thugs, and this normally tranquil spot exploded into a melee of killings and counterkillings that left nearly 30 people dead."

Etymology

From counter- + killing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.