Link Centre Dictionary

slaughter

slaugh·ter

UK/ˈslɔːtə/ US/ˈsloːtə/ fairly common
verb (2) noun (3)

verb

1.

kill (animals) usually for food consumption

  • “They slaughtered their only goat to survive the winter”
Synonyms
2.

kill a large number of people indiscriminately

  • “The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda”
Synonyms

noun

1.

the killing of animals (as for food)

2.
3.

Origin

From Middle English slaughter, from Old Norse *slahtr, later sláttr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtrą, from Proto-Germanic *slahaną. Equivalent to slay + -ter (as in laughter). Eventually derived from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). Related with Dutch slachten, German schlachten, Finnish lahdata (all “to slaughter”).

Phrases

  • as a lamb to the slaughter
  • come like a lamb to the slaughter
  • lamb to the slaughter
  • like a lamb to the slaughter
  • slaughter animal

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.