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zigouiller

to bump off

verb zee-goo-YEH Rare

Usage Note

Zigouiller is informal/slang for killing someone, softer and more darkly comic in tone than tuer. It is commonly used in crime fiction, film dialogue, and casual speech when speakers want to avoid bluntness. There is no formal noun derivative; the register is decisively colloquial and would be out of place in formal writing.

Examples

"Le gangster a zigouillé son rival."

Natural Translation

The gangster bumped off his rival.

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