From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishkill something ↔ off phrasal verb1 KILLto cause the death of a lot of living things SYN destroy Pollution is rapidly killing off plant life.2 to stop or remove something completely SYN destroy These figures kill off any hope that the economy is poised for recovery. → kill→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
kill off• A goal here would have killed Blackburn off.• In order to protect her, my grandmother killed her daughter off.• Most of his comrades had been killed or bought off.• So am I sorry that David Owen has killed it off?• Swindon knew they needed another to kill Oxford off.• The Avalanche had a five-minute power play but the Bruins did a fine job killing it off, allowing just three shots.• With amateurs there's no point in paying, they're likely to kill the victim off anyway, out of fear.• Stupid kids get killed falling off the Palisades trying to sneak into the park through a hole in the Cyclone fence. 