[ Usenet ] Per-user file(s) used by some Usenet reading programs (originally Larry Wall 's rn ) to discard summarily (without presenting for reading) articles matching some particularly uninteresting (or unwanted) patterns of subject, author, or other header lines. Thus to add a person (or subject) to one's kill file is to arrange for that person to be ignored by one's newsreader in future. By extension, it may be used for a decision to ignore the person or subject in other media. See also plonk .
[ Jargon File ]