killer-diller adj.
1. (orig. US) excellent, wonderful .
![]() | Flash! (Wash., D.C.) 21 Feb. 11/1: killer diller — Favorite expression of musicians when one of their tunes appeals to the ear in an unusual manner that has a tendency to cause excessive jubilance among the dancers and listeners. | |
![]() | [song title] Killer Diller Blues. | |
![]() | Jazz Lex. xxiii: Although some were of the merely ebullient variety (e.g., killer-diller: an extraordinarily good musician or piece of music), characteristically the jazz phrases were formed by semantic association. | |
![]() | Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He wears fresh trousers, one of Del’s killer-diller shirts. | ‘Thicker than Water’|
![]() | (con. 1968) Reckoning for Kings (1989) 279: Back home I drove a Vette [...] Had me a killer-diller car. | |
![]() | (ref. to 1937) | Swing, Swing, Swing 179: The Big Broadcast of 1937 was the third in a series [...] spotlighting some of the popular radio personalities of the day [...] The Goodman band can be seen [...] racing through Jimmy Mundy’s killer-diller rearrangement of ‘Bugle Call Rag’.|
![]() | Adventures 79: [They] were both killer-diller dance tunes. |
2. (US black) morally unimpeachable.
![]() | N.Y. Age 12 Oct. 10/6: I’m not a killer-diller man....none of us are, you understand...but I think it’s a low down shame...to see a woman make love to a dame. | ‘Observation Post’ in