thrill killer

noun

A murderer who is motivated by a strong personal desire to have a very exciting experience.

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Meanings

nounthrill killer (plural thrill killers)

plural thrill killers · alternative thrill-killer

  1. idiomaticA murderer who is motivated by a strong personal desire to have a very exciting experience.

    New York City's teen-aged thrill killer of 1945 was Lena Theresa Nienstedt, a whisky-drinking factory girl of 16. She carried a small hatchet in her handbag.

    1954 September 6, “SEQUELS: Another Life”, in Time
    1 more example

    [H]is best-known performances were two of his earliest: as a preppie thrill-killer in Hitchcock’s “Rope” in 1948, and as a tennis player wrongly suspected of murder in “Strangers on a Train” in 1951.

    2011 March 29, Neil Genzlinger, “Farley Granger, Screen Star of the 1950s, Dies at 85”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 May 2013
Cite this entry
APA

thrill killer. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thrill%20killer

MLA

“thrill killer.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thrill%20killer. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “thrill killer,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/thrill%20killer.

Source: thrill killer on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.