Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Massive slaughter, as in war; a massacre.
  • noun Corpses, especially of those killed in battle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The flesh of slain animals; heaps of flesh, as in shambles.
  • noun The flesh that is given to dogs after the chase.
  • noun Great destruction of men or animals by bloody violence; slaughter; butchery; massacre.
  • noun Synonyms Butchery, etc. See massacre, n.
  • To strew or cover with carnage or slaughtered bodies: as, “that carnaged plain,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Flesh of slain animals or men.
  • noun Great destruction of life, as in battle; bloodshed; slaughter; massacre; murder; havoc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Death and destruction.
  • noun What remains after a massacre, e. g. the corpses or gore.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the savage and excessive killing of many people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Old Italian carnaggio, from Medieval Latin carnāticum, meat, from Latin carō, carn-, flesh; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French carnage, from Latin carnaticum ("slaughter of animals"), itself from Latin carnem, accusative of caro ("flesh").

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