slaughter
noun
the killing or butchering of cattle, sheep, etc., especially for food.
slaughter
1 American
[slaw-ter]
/ ˈslɔ tər /
noun
-
slaughters
plural
-
the killing or butchering of cattle, sheep, etc., especially for food.
-
the brutal or violent killing of a person.
- Synonyms:
- murder
-
the killing of great numbers of people or animals indiscriminately; carnage.
the slaughter of war.
verb (used with object)
-
slaughters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slaughtered,
past participle, past
-
slaughtering
present participle
-
to kill or butcher (animals), especially for food.
-
to kill in a brutal or violent manner.
-
to slay in great numbers; massacre.
-
Informal. to defeat thoroughly; trounce.
They slaughtered our team.
Slaughter
2
American
[slaw-ter]
/ ˈslɔ tər /
noun
slaughter
British
/ ˈslɔːtə /
noun
-
the killing of animals, esp for food
-
the savage killing of a person
-
the indiscriminate or brutal killing of large numbers of people, as in war; massacre
-
informal a resounding defeat
verb
-
to kill (animals), esp for food
-
to kill in a brutal manner
-
to kill indiscriminately or in large numbers
-
informal to defeat resoundingly
slaughter
Idioms
Synonym Usage
Slaughter, butcher, massacre all imply violent and bloody methods of killing. Slaughter and butcher, primarily referring to the killing of animals for food, are used also of the brutal or indiscriminate killing of human beings: to slaughter cattle; to butcher a hog. Massacre indicates a general slaughtering of helpless or unresisting victims: to massacre the peasants of a region.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
slaughtersimple
-
slaughterssimple
-
have slaughteredperfect
-
has slaughteredperfect
-
am slaughteringprogressive
-
are slaughteringprogressive
-
is slaughteringprogressive
-
have been slaughteringperfect progressive
-
has been slaughteringperfect progressive
Past
-
slaughteredsimple
-
had slaughteredperfect
-
was slaughteringprogressive
-
were slaughteringprogressive
-
had been slaughteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slaughter
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English slaghter, slahter, slauther (noun), from Old Norse slātr, earlier slāttr, slahtr
Explanation
Slaughter refers to the killing of large numbers of animals or people. When cattle are old enough, they're sent to slaughter and their meat is processed and shipped to stores. The noun slaughter was first used in the 1300s and comes from the Old Norse word slahtr, which also described the mass killing of animals or people. A verb form came along later, in the 1530s. You might hear slaughter used to describe the killing of large numbers of people in a war, a genocide, or a massacre. It also can be used figuratively to describe a crushing defeat, like the slaughter of your basketball team by your bitter rivals.
Vocabulary lists containing slaughter
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act V
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act IV
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"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Some subsequently appeared in the slaughter pipeline; inspection records showed mustangs ending up on trucks bound for Canadian slaughter plants.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
“Halal,” meaning permissible under Islamic law, is a designation most typically associated with procedures for animal slaughter and with the absence of pork or alcohol in consumable products.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
Roughly 90% to 95% of birds in a commercial chicken barn survive the six to eight weeks it takes until they are ready for slaughter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
And that calf needs another year to reach slaughter weight, so the extra beef takes three years to arrive.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
The swift growth of the wild with briar and eglantine and trailing clematis was already drawing a veil over this place of dreadful feast and slaughter; but it was not ancient.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Jake Slaughter starts at center for the Chargers and Trey Lance shows his speed, but miscues on special teams and defense lead to a preseason loss to the 49ers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Jake Slaughter performs well in his first audition for the Chargers’ starting left-tackle role and the Mike McDaniel-guided running game puts on a show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Jake Slaughter had a great weekend,” Harbaugh said Tuesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Much of the discussion of Slaughter has focused on the president’s ability to shape the behavior of commissioners by threatening to remove them from their positions.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
I cain’t understand why Dr. Slaughter don’t come.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Bigger chicken breeds and flocks not being decimated by disease over the summer have led to a glut in an industry that slaughters more than nine billion birds a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
A meatpacker is the plant that slaughters the animal and breaks the carcass down into the cuts that reach shops or restaurants.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
The June 26 complaint filed by Animal Outlook described slaughters captured on video by Scott David, the organization’s director of investigations, when he visited the ranch during its Eid al-Adha event.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
It typically slaughters roughly 8,250 hogs a day, said Steve Meyer, lead economist for Partners for Production Agriculture.
From Reuters ● Apr. 24, 2023
Fruit and slaughters are not usually combined, nor are gods and peasants.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Department of Agriculture that livestock had been inhumanely slaughtered during a May event at Shahnawaz Ranch for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, and that the operation had sold the meat without required federal inspection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
An estimated five million dogs and one million cats are captured, stolen, trafficked and slaughtered for meat in Vietnam each year, according to Humane World for Animals.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
About half of the cattle slaughtered at JBS’s Pennsylvania plant were trucked long distances, including from Iowa and Canada.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Companies that haven’t beaten earnings estimates—and raised their outlooks—have “gotten slaughtered in this market,” says Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO at Laffer Tengler Investments.
From Barron's ● Apr. 27, 2026
For Liberal, Kansas, hap-pened to be the town where my steer, possibly that very day, was being slaughtered.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
“If anyone does have an idea of buying it for the purpose of what it’s being marketed as, for slaughtering animals, they’ll have a large contingent of public opposition,” Williamson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
On Wall Street, the arrival of Thanksgiving means it’s time for tax-loss harvesting, the wholesale slaughtering of the market’s worst-performing stocks.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
Business has been challenging for the companies responsible for slaughtering cattle and processing the meat into the steaks, ground beef, and roasts that line supermarket shelves and are sold at restaurants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Today, just four companies control more than 80% of the beef slaughtering and packing market.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2025
“Ahlgren, stop slaughtering her language and fetch her a fresh glass of champagne.”
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
