put someone out of their misery

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put someone out of their misery (third-person singular simple present puts someone out of their misery, present participle putting someone out of their misery, simple past and past participle put someone out of their misery)

1. (transitive, idiomatic, informal) To submit a suffering person or an animal to euthanasia.
2. (transitive, idiomatic, informal, figuratively) To end or destroy something for the good of the individuals involved in it.
   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1 - 6 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     And with some United supporters actually pleading with referee Clattenburg to put them out of their misery, one more moment of brilliance from the magical Silva found Dzeko surging into the area to finish left-footed for his second.

   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     It had been a mighty struggle, but they'd managed to put out her fires. The next time she tried to put Zevala out of its misery, it was going to damn well work. There was going to be nobody left to stop her.

3. (transitive, idiomatic, informal) To relieve somebody's anxiety by supplying information that they wanted to know.

   Well, I'll put you out of your misery: the amount we won on the lottery was only ten dollars.

• euthanise (UK) / euthanize (US)