slaughter

• slaughtre (obsolete)

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”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈslɔːtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈslɔtɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈslɑtɚ/, [ˈslɑɾɚ]
• Hyphenation: slaugh‧ter
• Rhymes: -ɔːtə(ɹ)
• Homophone: slotter (cot–caught merger)

slaughter (countable and uncountable, plural slaughters)

1. (uncountable) The killing of animals, generally for food.
2. A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, 1773, The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost, Edinburgh, page 416,

     For ſin, on war and mutual ſlaughter bent.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:

     […] I ſee
     Th’ Inſulting Tyrant prancing o’er the Field
     Strow’d with Rome’s Citizens, and drench’d in Slaughter,
     His Horſe’s Hoofs wet with Patrician Blood.

3. (rare) A mass destruction of non-living things.
   • 1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Modern Railways, page 425:

     There was a massive slaughter of W.R. steam power at the conclusion of the summer timetable. In all, 169 locomotives were condemned.

4. A rout or decisive defeat.
5. A group of iguanas.

   Synonym: mess

slaughter (third-person singular simple present slaughters, present participle slaughtering, simple past and past participle slaughtered)

1. (transitive) To butcher animals, generally for food.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To massacre people in large numbers.
   • 1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 21:

     Hurriedly he snatched up others, one or two at a time, until he had slaughtered thirty of Hrothgar's doughtiest earls.

3. (transitive) To kill someone or something, especially in a particularly brutal manner.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     Therefore cheere vp your mindes, prepare to fight,
     He that can take or ſlaughter Tamburlaine,
     Shall rule the Prouince of Albania.

• slaughterer
• self-slaughtered

• Laughters, laughster, laughters, laughtres, lethargus, slaughtre