bump off

present singular third person bumps off · participle present bumping off · participle past bumped off · past bumped off

1. USidiomaticTo kill, especially to murder.

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

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

   3 more examples

   "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."

   1921, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 34, in Gunsight Pass

   He could imagine M calling in the Chief of Staff. "007's already tangled up with the FBI. Dam' fool went up to Harlem last night and bumped off three of Mr. Big's men. Got hurt himself, apparently, but not much."

   1954, Ian Fleming, “True or False?”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 88

   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.

   2006 February 8, Caryn James, “CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Ordinary Killers: A Theme of the Movie Moment”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 Feb 2018, retrieved 27 Dec 2008

2. UKidiomaticTo cut class; to play truant.

   Synonyms: bunk off