kill with kindness

Idioms and Phrases

Overwhelm or harm someone with mistaken or excessive benevolence. For example, Aunt Mary constantly sends Jane chocolates and cake and other goodies, even though she's been told Jane's on a diet—nothing like killing with kindness . This expression originated as kill with kindness as fond apes do their young (presumably crushing them to death in a hug) and was a proverb by the mid-1500s.

Example Sentences

Dispatching the living dead on TV and in movies may require the maximum amount of brutality; when it comes to the corporate undead, it is best to kill with kindness.

From Economist

Of course we need to arrest or kill those that pose a direct threat to us, but we also need to have the countless millions of non-militant Muslims on our side, which means that we also need to 'kill with kindness' -- a weapon that these dehumanized creatures couldn't possibly understand, and are thus powerless against.

From New York Times

But for Kleinzahler, who swallows the persona in one gulp, Keillor is prepared to kill with kindness.

From The Guardian

But I shall next make the further complaint that, even when making every effort to do the civil, the result is apt to kill with kindness; and—as King Charles the First, when they were shuffling off his mortal coil, politely apologised for the unconscionable long time that his head took to decapitate—so I, too, must draw attention to the fact that the duration of formal ceremonious visits, is far too protracted and long drawn out.

From Project Gutenberg

You don't intend to do it but sometimes you can kill with kindness and be too good in feeding your trees if you don't understand how much fertilization the tree needs.

From Project Gutenberg