Slaughter

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: slaugh=ter

CIDE DICTIONARY

Slaughter, n. [OE. slautir, slaughter, slaghter, Icel. slātr slain flesh, modified by OE. slaught, slaht, slaughter, fr. AS. sleaht a stroke, blow; both from the root of E. slay. See Slay, v. t., and cf. Onslaught.].

 The act of killing.  [1913 Webster]
"On war and mutual slaughter bent."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Carnage; massacre; butchery; murder; havoc.

Slaughter, v. t. 

•  To visit with great destruction of life; to kill; to slay in battle.  [1913 Webster]

  "Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
  Savagely slaughtered."  [1913 Webster]
•  To butcher; to kill for the market, as beasts.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Slaughter, n. & v.
--n.
1 the killing of an animal or animals for food.
2 the killing of many persons or animals at once or continuously; carnage, massacre.
--v.tr.
1 kill (people) in a ruthless manner or on a great scale.
2 kill for food, butcher.
3 colloq. defeat utterly.

Derivative

slaughterer n. slaughterous adj.

Etymology

ME slahter ult. f. ON sl{aacute}tr butcher's meat, rel. to SLAY(1)

THESAURUS

Slaughter

annihilate, annihilation, assault, attack, bane, barbarize, batter, battering, blood, bloodbath, bloodletting, bloodshed, blue ruin, braining, breakup, brutalize, burn, butcher, butchering, butchery, carnage, carry on, commit carnage, commit genocide, commit mass murder, consumption, cut off, cut short, damnation, dealing death, decimate, decimation, depopulate, depredation, desolation, despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, destruction of life, devastation, disintegration, disorderliness, disorganization, dispatch, dispose of, disruption, dissolution, do away with, end, euthanasia, execution, exterminate, extermination, finish, finish off, flow of blood, forcible seizure, get rid of, go on, gore, hammer, havoc, hecatomb, holocaust, immolation, kill, killing, lapidation, lay waste, laying waste, loot, looting, maim, make away with, mangle, martyrdom, martyrization, massacre, maul, mercy killing, mug, murder, murder wholesale, mutilate, nip, obstreperousness, occision, onslaught, perdition, pillage, pillaging, poisoning, put paid to, rage, ramp, rampage, rant, rape, ravage, rave, riot, rioting, ritual killing, ritual murder, roar, ruin, ruination, sack, sacking, sacrifice, savage, shambles, shooting, slaughtering, slay, slay en masse, slaying, sow chaos, sowing with salt, spoliation, stick, stoning, storm, take off, taking of life, tear, tear around, terrorize, to, torture, total, undoing, unruliness, vandalism, vandalize, violate, violation, waste, wipe out, wrack, wrack and ruin, wreck

ROGET THESAURUS

Slaughter

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.

VB kill, put to death, slay, shed blood, murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, victimize, immolate, massacre, take away life, deprive of life, make away with, put an end to, despatch, dispatch, burke, settle, do for, strangle, garrote, hang, throttle, choke, stifle, suffocate, stop the breath, smother, asphyxiate, drown, saber, cut down, cut to pieces, cut the throat, jugulate, stab, run through the body, bayonet, eviscerate, put to the sword, put to the edge of the sword, shoot dead, blow one's brains out, brain, knock on the head, stone, lapidate, give a deathblow, deal a deathblow, give a quietus, give a coupe de grace, behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas, hunt, shoot, cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of, give no quarter, pour out blood like water, decimate, run amuck, wade knee deep in blood, imbrue one's hands in blood, die a violent death, welter in one's blood, dash out one's brains, blow out one's brains, commit suicide, kill oneself, make away with oneself, put an end to oneself, put an end to it all.