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 have proposed reimbursing fishers or using acoustic deterrents instead of mass slaughter.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
The human slaughter operation in the final area was stopped when a local farmer offered to buy some of the remaining cattle.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 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. 13, 2026
Fredericksburg had been undertaken with little probability of success, the papers claimed; nothing could have been expected under the shabby plans—if, indeed, they were plans—other than appalling slaughter.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Slaughter, and then by wrestler-turned-governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
In a Senedd debate, Welsh Green leader Anthony Slaughter said patients were facing "unbearable limbo".
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Slaughter was supported by Plaid Cymru MS for Sir Fynwy Torfaen, Matthew Jones, who accused the committee of "not publicly or adequately" explaining its concerns.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Grasping all of McDaniel’s concepts is no easy feat — even if they’re all Slaughter knows at the professional level.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
He was back with Granny when Dr. Slaughter arrived.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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
"We condemn the resurgence of these mass slaughters and call on government to take its responsibility to secure lives and property very seriously or it should leave the stage."
From Reuters ● Dec. 20, 2022
Fruit and slaughters are not usually combined, nor are gods and peasants.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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
More than 120,000 eagles were slaughtered over the course of Alaska’s bounty system alone.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
But one senior Tory told the BBC they expected the party would be "slaughtered" in May by Reform UK.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2026
Wolves have since recolonized the state — a development hailed by conservationists as an ecological win but derided by many ranchers whose cattle are slaughtered by the skilled pack hunters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
The natives also went toHog Island, which the settlers had stocked with hundreds of hogs, and slaughtered them all.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
He warned that slaughtering elephants for celebratory feasting could encourage poaching by creating the impression that killing elephants is acceptable when sanctioned by government.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
The red ink is mounting for companies in the business of slaughtering cattle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
King Mohammed VI has asked Moroccans to abstain from performing the Muslim rite of slaughtering sheep during Eid al-Adha this year due to a sharp drop in the country's herd.
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
Joel insists on slaughtering chickens on the farm.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
