abattoir

[ ab-uh-twahr, ab-uh-twahr ]
See synonyms for abattoir on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a slaughterhouse.

Origin of abattoir

1
1810–20; <French, equivalent to abatt(re) to slaughter (see abate) + -oir-ory2

Words Nearby abattoir

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use abattoir in a sentence

  • And there is the master of our largest and goriest abattoir.

    The Main Chance | Meredith Nicholson
  • It was only a scratch and he had been knocked down like a beef in an abattoir by an unseen enemy, on whom he could not lay hands!

    The Last Shot | Frederick Palmer
  • Have you ever seen a herd of cattle being driven to abattoir on a fine May morning?

    One Man's Initiation--1917 | John Dos Passos
  • Ay—and the abattoir is far, though its perfume is nigh; it is thrice a hundred yards from hence.

  • Probably it would be hung up in some abattoir, where oxen are driven in at one end, and tinned meat taken out at the other.

    Thorley Weir | E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

British Dictionary definitions for abattoir

abattoir

/ (ˈæbəˌtwɑː) /


noun
  1. another name for slaughterhouse

Origin of abattoir

1
C19: French, from abattre to fell

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012