Avada Kedavra

present singular third person Avada Kedavras · participle present Avada Kedavra-ing · participle past Avada Kedavra'd · past Avada Kedavra'd · participle past Avada Kedavraed · past Avada Kedavraed

1. ambitransitivehumorousTo use the Killing Curse from the Harry Potter series on (someone), causing immediate death.

   If I was Harry Potter, I would have Avada Kedavraed your ass straight into hell.

   2013, J.C. Daniels [pseudonym; Shiloh Walker], chapter 10, in Broken Blade (Colbana Files), →ISBN, part 1 (Broken)

   5 more examples

   There isn’t much point in trying to attack this, the final installment in the epic saga of Harry Potter; everyone in the civilized world has already seen it, and all of the die-hard HP fans won’t accept even the slightest criticism of the movies, save for the degree to which they differ from the books. However, at the time of this writing, HP-fever has died down and I can now give this movie a fair examination, free from the scornful “avada kedavra-ing” of fanboys and fangirls.

   2011 August 16, Kevin Kryah, “Harry ends on a high note”, in Samantha Strong, editor, Cub Reporter, volume 63, number 1, Indianapolis, Ind.: Lawrence Central High School, page 13, column 1

   If Harry Potter was a vicious hooligan, we’d quite happily accept Voldermort^([sic]) Avada-Kedavra-ing him.

   2012, Charlie Wilson, A Seriously Useful Author’s Guide to Writing a Marketable Book, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 136

   There are challenges — like Ravenclaw egos, Voldemort’s avada kedavra-ing, the Malfoys’ bullying, the stress of exams and the frigidity of weather which can make lecture halls seem more like igloos — but these challenges become much more manageable when undertaken alongside others with whom one identifies and empathizes.

   2013 November 6, David Shuck, “The weather outside doesn’t have to be frightful”, in André Rouillard, editor, The Vanderbilt Hustler, volume 125, number 44, page 6, column 3

   “One day I walked into my classroom to find every single student snoring. The noise…I finally snapped. I waved my hand and turned them all into blue-footed bubis**.” / News traveled across campus quickly, eliciting an immediate response from both faculty and students. / “I love it!” said one professor who wished not to be named. “That’s thinking outside the box! Personally, I would have avada kedavra’d the whole lot of them. But I suppose it’s a start.”

   2016 April 1, Skeeter Reeter bo Beeter [pseudonym], “Professor Rewarded for Taking Revenge on Slacking Students”, in The Wilson Bullboard, Chambersburg, Pa.: Wilson College, page 4, columns 2–3

   Voldemort remains a performer throughout the entire series, and his theatricality becomes his predictability (though he learns enough to Avada Kedavra Harry immediately in Deathly Hallows and go through the theatrics after the threat has been nullified).

   2018, Irvin Khaytman, “Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix”, in The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, 2nd edition, Story Spring Publishing, →ISBN

2. figurativelyhumoroustransitiveTo destroy (something).

   Better be careful, witch, it sounds like he’s about to Avada Kedavra this relationship.

   2011 December 5, UWM Post, volume 56, number 13, Milwaukee, Wis.: University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

   4 more examples

   Hermione Granger just turned 36, in case your childhood hasn’t already been Avada Kedavra’d into oblivion.

   2015 October 2, “The Bullseye”, in Henry Goldblatt, editor, Entertainment Weekly, number 1383, New York, N.Y.: Entertainment Weekly Inc., →ISSN, page 80

   Now, if you accidentally run terraform destroy against prod, and it also takes the data with it, you’ve done more than just flipped the boxes off. They’re gone, kaput, Avada Kedavra’d, so be careful. We have these tools to make our lives easier, but sometimes I wonder if we’re not also giving ourselves the capability for so much more accidental destruction.

   2018 December, Adam K. Dean, “Git, Configuration Management, and Infrastructure as Code”, in Linux Administration Cookbook: Insightful Recipes to Work with System Administration Tasks on Linux, Birmingham, West Midlands: Packt Publishing Ltd., →ISBN, page 637

   Despite our being confined in a boring-ass town whose main attraction was the fucking hardware store because it had begun serving steak-and-cheese sandwiches, Chase had planned the perfect date, only for my mother to Avada Kedavra it.

   2019, Gloria Chao, “Shit”, in Our Wayward Fate, New York, N.Y.: Simon Pulse, published 2020, →ISBN, page 73

   ‘[…] And it hit me. That poem just reached inside of me, tore my heart out, and Avada Kedavra’d it!’ It is a very emotional poem, to be sure.

   2020 summer, The Quibbler