slaughter

• slaughtre (obsolete)

From Old Norse slátr, from Proto-Germanic *slahtiz, from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈslɔːtə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈslɔtɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈslɑtɚ/
• Hyphenation: slaugh‧ter
• Rhymes: -ɔːtə(ɹ)

slaughter (countable and uncountable, plural slaughters)

1. (uncountable) The killing of animals, generally for food; ritual slaughter (kosher and halal).
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.

3. A rout or decisive defeat.

• (a massacre): manslaughter

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
3. (transitive) To kill in a particularly brutal manner

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