sanguinary

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: san=gui=nar=y

CIDE DICTIONARY

sanguinary, a. [L. sanguinarius, fr. sanguis blood: cf. F. sanguinaire.].

•  Attended with much bloodshed; bloody; murderous; as, a sanguinary war, contest, or battle.  [1913 Webster]

  "We may not propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences."  [1913 Webster]
•  Bloodthirsty; cruel; eager to shed blood.  [1913 Webster]

  "Passion . . . makes us brutal and sanguinary."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Bloody; murderous; bloodthirsty; cruel.

sanguinary, n. [L. herba sanguinaria an herb that stanches blood: cf. F. sanguinaire. See Sanguinary, a.].

 The yarrow.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sanguinary, adj.
1 accompanied by or delighting in bloodshed.
2 bloody; bloodthirsty.
3 (of laws) inflicting death freely.

Derivative

sanguinarily adv. sanguinariness n.

Etymology

L sanguinarius f. sanguis -inis blood

THESAURUS

sanguinary

Draconian, Tartarean, aggressive, animal, antagonistic, anthropophagous, atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, battling, beastly, bellicose, belligerent, bestial, blood-spattered, bloodstained, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal, brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, chauvinist, chauvinistic, combative, contentious, cruel, cruel-hearted, cutthroat, demoniac, demoniacal, devilish, diabolic, enemy, ensanguined, fell, feral, ferine, ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, fighting, full of fight, gory, grim, hawkish, heartless, hellish, homicidal, hostile, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, inimical, jingo, jingoish, jingoist, jingoistic, kill-crazy, malign, malignant, martial, merciless, militant, militaristic, military, murdering, murderous, noncivilized, offensive, pitiless, pugnacious, quarrelsome, red-handed, remorseless, ruthless, saber-rattling, sadistic, sanguine, sanguineous, satanic, savage, scrappy, self-destructive, sharkish, slaughterous, slavering, soldierlike, soldierly, subhuman, suicidal, tameless, trigger-happy, truculent, unchristian, uncivilized, unfriendly, ungentle, unhuman, unpacific, unpeaceable, unpeaceful, untamed, vicious, warlike, warmongering, warring, wild, wolfish

ROGET THESAURUS

sanguinary

Killing

N killing, homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, trucidation, iccusion, effusion of blood, blood, blood shed, gore, slaughter, carnage, butchery, battue, massacre, fusillade, noyade, thuggery, Thuggism, deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus, execution, judicial murder, martyrdom, butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur, guet-a-pens, gallows, executioner, man-eater, apache, hatchet man, highbinder, regicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, feticide, foeticide, uxoricide, vaticide, suicide, felo de se, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath, immolation, auto da fe, holocaust, suffocation, strangulation, garrote, hanging, lapidation, deadly weapon, Aceldama, slaughtering, phthisozoics, sport, sporting, the chase, venery, hunting, coursing, shooting, fishing, pig- sticking, sportsman, huntsman, fisherman, hunter, Nimrod, slaughterhouse, meat packing plant, shambles, abattoir, fatal accident, violent death, casualty, killing, murderous, slaughterous, sanguinary, sanguinolent, blood stained, blood thirsty, homicidal, red handed, bloody, bloody minded, ensanguined, gory, thuggish, mortal, fatal, lethal, dead, deadly, mortiferous, lethiferous, unhealthy internecine, suicidal, sporting, piscatorial, piscatory, in at the death, assassination has never changed the history of the.