slaughter verb - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of slaughter verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

slaughter

verb
 
/ˈslɔːtə(r)/
 
/ˈslɔːtər/
[often passive]
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they slaughter
 
/ˈslɔːtə(r)/
 
/ˈslɔːtər/
he / she / it slaughters
 
/ˈslɔːtəz/
 
/ˈslɔːtərz/
past simple slaughtered
 
/ˈslɔːtəd/
 
/ˈslɔːtərd/
past participle slaughtered
 
/ˈslɔːtəd/
 
/ˈslɔːtərd/
-ing form slaughtering
 
/ˈslɔːtərɪŋ/
 
/ˈslɔːtərɪŋ/
jump to other results
  1. slaughter something to kill an animal, usually for its meat synonym butcher
    • The lambs are taken to the local abattoir to be slaughtered.
    Extra Examples
    • The animals are all humanely slaughtered.
    • Thousands of birds were slaughtered for their feathers.
    • elephants illegally slaughtered by poachers
    Topics Farmingc2
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb
    • humanely
    • ritually
    • illegally
    preposition
    • for
    See full entry
  2. slaughter somebody/something to kill a large number of people or animals violently synonym massacre
    • Men, women and children were slaughtered and villages destroyed.
    Extra Examples
    • Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered.
    • Thousands of people were systematically slaughtered by their oppressors.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb
    • brutally
    • cruelly
    • indiscriminately
    See full entry
  3. slaughter somebody/something (informal) to defeat somebody/something by a large number of points in a sports game, competition, etc.
    • We were slaughtered 10–1 by the home team.
  4. Word OriginMiddle English (as a noun): from Old Norse slátr ‘butcher's meat’; related to slay. The verb dates from the mid 16th cent.
See slaughter in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
brink
noun
 
 
From the Topic
Danger
C2
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day