Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The killing of animals especially for food.
- noun The killing of a large number of people; a massacre.
- transitive verb To kill (animals) especially for food; butcher.
- transitive verb To kill (people) in large numbers; massacre.
- transitive verb To kill in a violent or brutal manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of slaying or killing, especially of many persons or animals.
- noun Applied to beasts, butchery; the killing of oxen, sheep, or other animals for market.
- noun Great or sweeping reduction in the price of goods offered for sale.
- noun Synonyms Havoc. See
kill . - To kill; slay; especially, to kill wantonly, ruthlessly, or in great numbers; massacre: as, to
slaughter men in battle. - To butcher; kill, as animals for the market or for food: as, to
slaughter oxen or sheep.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The extensive, violent, bloody, or wanton destruction of life; carnage.
- noun The act of killing cattle or other beasts for market.
- transitive verb To visit with great destruction of life; to kill; to slay in battle.
- transitive verb To butcher; to kill for the market, as beasts.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The
killing of animals, generally for food; ritual slaughter (kosher andhalal ). - noun A
massacre ; thekilling of a large number of people. - noun A
rout or decisive defeat. - verb transitive To
butcher animals, generally for food - verb transitive To
massacre people in large numbers - verb transitive To
kill in a particularlybrutal manner
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the savage and excessive killing of many people
- noun the killing of animals (as for food)
- noun a sound defeat
- verb kill (animals) usually for food consumption
- verb kill a large number of people indiscriminately
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This slaughter is the first one in history in which it is argued (by the IDF) that there are no civilians.
Israeli TV airs call to father after children killed « Antiwar.com Blog 2009
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The real reason for this slaughter is they are over-fishing and want to kill the competition for the fish.
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Hitler made the same efforts to stir his people to fury against what he called the slaughter of Germans in Poland and in Czechoslovakia and the conspiracies of the Jews and the West.
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There was a statement coming from the Islamist militants, rejoicing in what they called the slaughter of yet another American hostage.
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Katshi said, complaining the world body had done nothing to prevent what he called the slaughter of Congolese civilians by foreign armies.
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The most penetrating and iconoclastic response to this sort of reasoning came from the writer Isaac Bashevis Singer in his story "The Letter Writer," in which he called the slaughter of animals the "eternal Treblinka."
NYT > Home Page By GARY STEINER 2009
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Indeed, slaughter is something meat-eaters don't want to think too much about.
Bruce Friedrich: Does Eating Meat Support Bestiality? Bruce Friedrich 2010
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Indeed, slaughter is something meat-eaters don't want to think too much about.
Bruce Friedrich: Does Eating Meat Support Bestiality? Bruce Friedrich 2010
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They have continued with the dolphin slaughter this year, and there has been a quiet standoff between the protesters and the fishermen.
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Massacre manqué, we might call it – slaughter in all but a good aim.
Howard Jacobson speaks his mind Not a sheep 2009
bilby commented on the word slaughter
"Selling horses for slaughter was an option when the country had facilities to take them, Butcher said, but now people are left with the cost of euthanasia plus disposal fees that can run into hundreds of dollars - if they don't decide to abandon the animals. Horse slaughter 'would be an incredible industry for Montana', generating jobs not just in the killings but also in areas such as preparation of meat for sale in Europe and packaging of dog food, he said."
- AP, Montana legislator pushes for horse slaughterhouse, billingsgazette.net, 2 Feb 2009.
The appropriately named Butcher of the story is Montana Republican Rep. Ed Butcher.
February 11, 2009