MASSACRE

I. noun Etymology: Middle French Date: circa 1578 the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, a cruel or wanton murder, a wholesale slaughter of animals, an act of complete destruction , II. transitive verb (~d; massacring) Date: 1581 to kill by ~ ; slaughter , mangle 2 , ~r noun