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slaughterhouse

American  
[slaw-ter-hous] / ˈslɔ tərˌhaʊs /

noun

plural

slaughterhouses

  1. a building or place where animals are butchered for food; abattoir.

slaughterhouse British  
/ ˈslɔːtəˌhaʊs /

noun

  1. a place where animals are butchered for food; abattoir

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of slaughterhouse

1325–75; Middle English slautherhus; slaughter, house

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.

“We don’t want a slaughterhouse in Los Angeles County.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 28, 2026

When he arrived in Massachusetts for his first fellowship studying parathyroid hormone, Habener found a ready source of thyroid glands to study from a local Cambridge slaughterhouse that supplied calf meat.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 29, 2025

It said that livestock farmers, cheesemakers, slaughterhouse owners and feed suppliers had been informed about the new restrictions.

From BBC • Jul. 30, 2024

He was just getting started when news broke that 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had reportedly died in a slaughterhouse in Japan.

From Seattle Times • May 1, 2024

Around to the other side of the building, tanker trucks pump in thousands of gallons of liquefied fat, usually beef fat from a nearby slaughterhouse.

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.