Slaughter

¹

[slaw-ter]

noun

1. Frank, 1908–2001, U.S. novelist and physician.

slaughter

²

[slaw-ter]

noun

1. the killing or butchering of cattle, sheep, etc., especially for food.

2. the brutal or violent killing of a person.

   Synonyms: murder

3. the killing of great numbers of people or animals indiscriminately; carnage.

   the slaughter of war.

verb (used with object)

1. to kill or butcher (animals), especially for food.

2. to kill in a brutal or violent manner.

3. to slay in great numbers; massacre.

4. Informal.,  to defeat thoroughly; trounce.

   They slaughtered our team.

slaughter

/ ˈslɔːtə /

noun

1. the killing of animals, esp for food

2. the savage killing of a person

3. the indiscriminate or brutal killing of large numbers of people, as in war; massacre

4. informal,  a resounding defeat

verb

1. to kill (animals), esp for food

2. to kill in a brutal manner

3. to kill indiscriminately or in large numbers

4. informal,  to defeat resoundingly

Other Word Forms

• slaughterer noun
• slaughteringly adverb
• unslaughtered adjective
• slaughterous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Slaughter¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English slaghter, slahter, slauther (noun), from Old Norse slātr, earlier slāttr, slahtr

Word History and Origins

Origin of Slaughter¹

Old English sleaht; related to Old Norse slāttar hammering, slātr butchered meat, Old High German slahta, Gothic slauhts, German Schlacht battle

Idioms and Phrases

see like a lamb to the slaughter.

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

A general licence is available that allows animals to cross the boundary if they are going directly to slaughter.

Read more on BBC

Men wearing three lions have habitually been lambs to the slaughter at the Gabbatoir.

Read more on BBC

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.

Read more on Barron's

The Lexington, Neb., plant employs roughly 3,000 people and can slaughter almost 5,000 cattle a day, according to industry estimates.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The anticlericalism of the left, with its burning of churches and slaughter of priests, resulted in some of the worst atrocities of the war.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• butcher 
• crush 
• decimate 
• destroy 
• liquidate 
• maim 
• massacre 
• murder 
• mutilate 
• rout 
• slay 
• torture 
• wipe out