murder one's darlings

A form of kill one's darlings — To destroy things or characters, particularly in art, of which one is fond, often reluctantly in order to improve one's artistic output.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbmurder one's darlings (third-person singular simple present murders one's darlings, present participle murdering one's darlings, simple past and past participle murdered one's darlings)

present singular third person murders one's darlings · participle present murdering one's darlings · participle past murdered one's darlings · past murdered one's darlings

  1. alternativeAlternative form of kill one's darlings.

    Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

    1916, Arthur Quiller-Couch, “On Style”, in On The Art of Writing

Origin

Possibly first used by Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) during a series of lectures at the University of Cambridge, later published in book form.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

murder one's darlings. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/murder%20one's%20darlings

MLA

“murder one's darlings.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/murder%20one's%20darlings. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “murder one's darlings,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/murder%20one's%20darlings.

Source: murder one's darlings on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.