[mas.sa.cre] n [MF] (ca. 1578) 1: the act or an instance of killing a number of usu. helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
2: a cruel or wanton murder
3: a wholesale slaughter of animals
4: an act of complete destruction "the author's ~ of traditional federalist presuppositions --R. G. McCloskey"
[2]massacre vt mas.sa.cred ; mas.sa.cring (1581) 1: to kill by massacre: slaughter
2: mangle
2. "words were misspelled and syntax massacred --Bice Clemow" -- mas.sa.crer n