kill someone with kindness
kill (one) with kindness
To harm, inconvenience, or bother one by treating them with excessive favor or kindness. The phrase originated as the expression "kill with kindness as fond apes do their young," referring to the notion that such animals sometimes crushed their offspring by hugging them too hard. I love talking to Grandma, but she calls me twice a day to see how I'm doing—right now she's killing me with kindness.
See also: kill, kindness
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
kill someone with kindness
If you kill someone with kindness, you treat them too kindly when this is not what they need or want. `He is killing me with kindness,' Sallie says. `He's just too attentive.'
See also: kill, kindness, someone
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
kill someone with (or by) kindness
spoil someone by overindulging them.This expression dates back to the mid 16th century; it famously appears in the title of Thomas Heywood's play A Woman Killed with Kindness ( 1607 ).
See also: kill, kindness, someone
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
- kill (one) with kindness
- kill somebody with kindness
- kill with kindness
- do (one) a kindness
- do a kindness
- kill with kindness, to
- leave (one) to (someone's) tender mercies
- leave to someone's tender mercies
- much obliged
- oblige