massacre

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: mas=sa=cre

CIDE DICTIONARY

massacre, n. [F., fr. LL. mazacrium; cf. Prov. G. metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, G. metzger a butcher, and LG. matsken to cut, hew, OHG. meizan to cut, Goth. máitan.].

•  The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day; the St. Valentine's Day massacre; the Amritsar massacre; the Wounded Knee massacre.  [1913 Webster]
•  Murder.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "I'll find a day to massacre them all,
  And raze their faction and their family."  [1913 Webster]

  "If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
  Brhold this pattern of thy butcheries."  [1913 Webster]

  "Such a scent I draw
  Of carnage, prey innumerable!"  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Massacre, Butchery, Carnage.

massacre, v. t. [Cf. F. massacrer. See Massacre, n.].

 To kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher; to slaughter; -- limited to the killing of human beings.  [1913 Webster]
"If James should be pleased to massacre them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

massacre, n. & v.
--n.
1 a general slaughter (of persons, occasionally of animals).
2 an utter defeat or destruction.
--v.tr.
1 make a massacre of.
2 murder (esp. a large number of people) cruelly or violently.

Etymology

OF, of unkn. orig.

THESAURUS

massacre

annihilate, annihilating, annihilation, assassination, assault, attack, battering, bloodbath, bloodshed, bump off, butcher, butchering, butchery, carnage, commit carnage, commit genocide, commit mass murder, decimate, decimation, depopulate, destroy, disorderliness, eliminate, eradicate, execute, execution, exterminate, extermination, final solution, forcible seizure, genocide, holocaust, kill, killing, laying waste, liquidate, liquidation, looting, mass destruction, mass murder, mow down, murder, murder wholesale, murdering, obliterate, obstreperousness, onslaught, pillaging, pogrom, race extermination, race-murder, rape, riot, rioting, sacking, saturnalia of blood, slaughter, slaughtering, slay, slay en masse, slaying, sowing with salt, unruliness, violation, wholesale murder, wipe out

ROGET THESAURUS

massacre

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.