SLAUGHTER


Meaning of SLAUGHTER in English

I. ˈslȯd.ə(r), -ȯtə- noun

( -s )

Etymology: Middle English slauhter, slaughter, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse slātr butcher's meat, slātra to slaughter; akin to Old English sleaht slaughter, Old High German slahta, Gothic slauhts; derivative from the root of English slay (I)

1.

a. : the killing of animals

the slaughter of a hundred lions afforded him no recreation — Agnes Repplier

especially : the butchery of cattle for market

b. : the killing of a person especially in a bloody or barbarous manner

was marked for slaughter but escaped death and became the leader of the minority — E.E.Dale

2.

a. : mass killing and bloodshed (as in war) : wholesale carnage : massacre

hoped that after the slaughter it would be possible really to create … one world in peace — Alva Myrdal

b. : wanton destruction

notwithstanding this wholesale slaughter , bird life is still plentiful — American Guide Series: Tennessee

half a century of … insensate slaughter sufficed to destroy the magnificent forest — M.M.Quaife

c. obsolete : carnage personified

besmeared and overstained with slaughter's pencil — Shakespeare

3. : an act or instance of utter annihilation or defeat

it was no longer a battle but a slaughter — Robert Graves

ended the slaughter with a par 4 on the tenth hole to win by the awful margin of 9 and 8 — New Yorker

II. transitive verb

( slaughtered ; slaughtered ; slaughtering -ȯd.əriŋ, -ȯtər- also -ȯ.tr- ; slaughters )

1. : to kill (animals) for food ; especially : butcher

2.

a. : to kill (a person) especially in a bloody or barbarous manner : slay

five men in a stolen car slaughtered a paymaster and a factory guard — Phil Stong

the number of people slaughtered annually by cars — F.L.Allen

b. : to discredit or demolish completely

tears through our literature slaughtering Emerson, Thoreau, Melville, and Hawthorne — S.E.Hyman

his team was … slaughtered by Oklahoma — Eddie Beachler

c. slang : to make an irresistible impression on

slaughtering them at the box office — Metronome

3.

a. : to kill (people) in large numbers : massacre

overwhelming automatic firepower … proved too much for them, and 700 were slaughtered in one day — Barrett McGurn

b. : to destroy in large quantities

slaughtered fish in astronomical numbers — Henry LaCossitt

timber was slaughtered — Russell Lord

4. : to sell (securities) at a sacrifice

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.