slaughter

¹

[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

²

[slaw-ter]

noun

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

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

In the end, some 1,200 men, women and children would be slaughtered by Hamas—at Be’eri and other kibbutzim, and at an open-air music festival—and 251 hostages taken to Gaza.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

In June, Wagner mercenaries left Mali, their reputation in tatters because of their failure to blunt insurgent advances and their history of slaughtering civilians in the name of providing security.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Uzbek despot distinguished himself by “boiling his enemies, slaughtering his poverty-stricken people when they protest, and conscripting armies of children for slave labour,” according to The Guardian.

Read more on Salon

“There’s a tendency to view anything African-derived as ‘barbaric,’ while turning a blind eye to widespread animal slaughter in other contexts,” she said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The distance may be greater now, since one adventure during his Earth X interlude involved him slaughtering people he now knows shared his inclusive values.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

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