slaughterhouse
Americannoun
-
slaughterhouses
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of slaughterhouse
Explanation
A slaughterhouse is where animals are killed so they can be used for meat. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle exposes the unsafe working conditions of a slaughterhouse in Chicago. Good times. Not. In order for people to eat meat, animals have to be slaughtered, or killed, and the place where this happens on a large scale is a slaughterhouse. Sometimes it's also called an abattoir. The word stems from a Scandinavian root and is related to the Old Norseslatr, "a butchering." The word slaughterhouse can also refer to a violent situation. In Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse Five," war prisoners are housed in an abandoned slaughterhouse, which is also a metaphor for war itself.
Vocabulary lists containing slaughterhouse
"Frankenstein" and "How Frankenstein Began"
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Neighborhood Odes
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I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871
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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:
They’re not selling it and sending it to a slaughterhouse.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
He's written about slaughterhouse workers, the family behind Tyson Foods, the value of a 7-Eleven Slurpee, and the failed supermarket megamerger between Kroger and Albertsons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
The last slaughterhouse in Los Angeles County permanently closed its doors nearly four months ago in the wake of operational violations, escaped cattle and, finally, bankruptcy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
The Union Stock Yards in Chicago, the most modern slaughterhouse of the era, opened on Christmas Day in 1865 and marked a turning point for industrial beef production.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2024
I filled it With wet dirt, This upside-down turtle, This slaughterhouse For chiles and tomatoes, The thousand sheets of onion.
From "Neighborhood Odes" by Gary Soto
Ranchers supporting brands say feedlots are the last line of defense before slaughterhouses, and must be inspected.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
"In addition to setting up that 20 kilometre zone, we've increased the amount of testing in the slaughterhouses," Muir said.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
The link between disdain and action may not form, in the same way that people who don’t like slaughterhouses still eat steak.
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2025
We often don’t want to think of the barbarism of the act, which is why slaughterhouses and factory farms are often located out in the middle of nowhere.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2024
Men were now trudging away from the shapeups at the other slaughterhouses, looking dejected and hopeless.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
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.
