killing field

[kil-ing feeld]

noun

1. a site of indiscriminate and cruel killing of large numbers of people, especially a place of wartime genocide.

   The concentration camps of Germany and the killing fields of Cambodia are graphic displays of the presence of evil in our world.

2. a dangerous place where an excessive number of people have died, as by murder, riots, or drug overdose.

   Some 300 lives are violently ended each year on the killing fields of New York's streets and sidewalks, about half of them pedestrians or cyclists.

Word History and Origins

Origin of killing field¹

First recorded in 1980–85