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
It separately aims to sell its Pasco, Wash., facility that can slaughter about 2,000 cattle a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Questions have been asked about the weapons used, the amount of ammunition, and why slaughter in situ was chosen as the method of disposal.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 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
There are humans who hunt and slaughter whales and market the products for lipstick or industrial lubricant.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Slaughter doesn’t sound overwhelmed about being thrust into the starting role.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Biadasz was replaced by rookie offensive lineman Jake Slaughter, who is among the candidates to play left guard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The question mark is at left guard, with five candidates in the mix: Kayode Awosika, Branson Taylor, Jake Slaughter, Trey Pipkins III and Trevor Penning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Even after Slaughter, Congress could largely fix this problem by statute.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
“That’s all very well you saying that,” said Mother Slaughter.
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
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
Truckers, feedlot operators and cattle ranchers face hits to their bottom line without the Lexington facility, which slaughters up to 5,000 cattle a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
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
Through the first six months of this year, companies slaughtered more than 4.9 billion chickens, up 3% from the same period last year and up 6% from five years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
From August 2024 to early March, more than 480,000 sheep and goats have been slaughtered because of the pandemic, mainly in central and northern Greece.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
During that period of turmoil, hunters slaughtered every rhino in Kidepo and across Uganda's other national parks, which had once supported around 700 of the massive animals, the Reuters news agency reports.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
More than 120,000 eagles were slaughtered over the course of Alaska’s bounty system alone.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
Army was after him and the village gave him food and slaughtered a goat for his men.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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
With a mischievous monkey-like creature as a sidekick, Dek and Thia wander the landscape slaughtering scary critters while pulling off some lightly comical beauty-and-the-beast shtick.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
Muslims mark the event by slaughtering sheep or other animals and the meat is shared among family and donated to the poor.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2025
An H5N1 outbreak that recently infected five poultry workers and 1.8 million chickens in northeast Colorado may have been fueled in part by heat wave conditions and slaughtering methods, according to federal health authorities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2024
During slaughtering time, things was too busy for me to take off.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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.
