killing, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

killing n.

also kill

[now SE]

(US) a great success, usu. financial.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Sept. 9/2: Another little playful ditty [...] was about the ‘boys,’ with their moustaches and eye-glasses, doing a ‘great kill’ in the best box at the theatre but whose washing consisted of ‘a dicky and a pair of cotton socks.’.
1900		St Paul Globe (MN) 27 Nov. 5/1: Drake, of Chicago, [...] made such a ‘killing’ on the English tracks that was never before made in England.
1909		W. Irwin Confessions of a Con Man 44: I won three hundred and fifty dollars [...] The news of my killing got around.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Nightmare Town’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 35: What a killing!
1937		T. Thursday ‘Good Luck is No Good’ in Federal Agent Nov. 🌐 I tell Maggie McGill — that’s the dame I’m hot over — that I am booked for a heavy killing.
1941		C. Himes ‘Face in the Moonlight’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 137: [Y]ou were in Miami—the winter after you had made the killing at Arlington Park.
1953		E. Reid Shame of N.Y. 136: The shipowners want a constant, controlled pool of labor, and the longshoremen live for the day of the ‘big killing’.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 57: We’re going to have a proper killing this time.

In phrases

make a killing (v.) (also make a kill, ...cleaning)

1. (orig. US) to make a profit by gambling, whether at the races, on the stock market, in a casino etc.

1896		H. Blossom Checkers 12: It looked like a good chance to make a ‘killin’’ and I put twenty on him.
1908		D.G. Phillips Susan Lenox I 210: We were going to try to make a killing at Sutherland.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I iii: I’m feeling good, that’s all — I’m going to make the killing of my life to-morrow.
1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 101: She had made a killing on the ponies, cleaned up $40,000.
1931		P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘You want to make a killin’?’.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 117: Aymes makes a killin’ on the stock market.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 181: Pretending he had made a kill on the horses.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 104: He’s got dough [...] He made a killing that one week in Evansville.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 126: If I make a killing tonight I’ll be damn careful gatting away from the ring and back to the camp!
1969		A. Buzo Rooted III iii: Went up country and made a killing on the proverbial dogs. Picked up a good tip from a local turf identity.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 37: There was one guy [...] who owned a contraband library of pornographic books; he made a killing loaning them out at three bales [of tobacco] a crack.
1982		J. Sullivan ‘A Losing Streak’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] We’ll see if we can make a killing down the old market.
1991		J. Osborne Déjàvu Act I: The middle classes never tell you when they’ve made a killing, especially when it’s inherited money.
2000		Sun. Times 6 Feb. 8: Wife of raider makes killing on M&S deal.
2010		Sun. Times Mag. 19 Dec. 63/3: Schilling has made a killing abd bought himself a pile in Norfolk.

2. (US campus) to answer all of a teacher’s questions correctly.

1906

J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 146: make a killing, n. phr. To answer all the questions of a teacher correctly. ‘He asked some hard questions, but Jim made a killing’.