massacre

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(măs'ə-kər) pronunciation
n.
  1. The act or an instance of killing a large number of humans indiscriminately and cruelly.
  2. The slaughter of a large number of animals.
  3. Informal. A severe defeat, as in a sports event.
tr.v., -cred (-kərd), -cring (-krĭng, -kər-ĭng), -cres.
  1. To kill indiscriminately and wantonly; slaughter.
  2. Informal. To defeat decisively.
  3. Informal. To botch; bungle: massacred the French language trying to order dinner.

[French, from Old French macecle, macecre, butchery, shambles.]

massacrer mas'sa·crer (-kər-ər, -krər) n.


(noun and verb) is spelt this way in British English and American English, and as a verb has inflected forms massacres, massacred, massacring.

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noun

  1. The savage killing of many victims: bloodbath, bloodletting, bloodshed, butchery, carnage, pogrom, slaughter. See help/harm/harmless.
  2. The act of defeating or the condition of being defeated: beating, defeat, drubbing, overthrow, rout, thrashing, vanquishment. Informal trimming, whipping. Slang dusting, licking. See win/lose/recovery.

verb

  1. To kill savagely and indiscriminately: annihilate, butcher, decimate, slaughter. See crimes, help/harm/harmless, make/unmake.
  2. To render totally ineffective by decisive defeat: annihilate, crush, drub, overpower, overwhelm, smash, steamroller, thrash, trounce, vanquish. Informal wallop. Slang clobber, cream, shellac, smear. See win/lose/recovery.


v

Definition: kill
Antonyms: create, give birth

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massacre

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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: The unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of human beings.

pronunciation Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Training is everything. — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

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categories related to 'massacre'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to massacre, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Massacre.

The term massacre is derived from the Latin term "mass sacrifice". The first recorded use in English of the word massacre in the name of an event is "Marlowe (c1600), The massacre at Paris"[1] (a reference to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre). Massacre can also be used as a verb, as "To kill (people or, less commonly, animals) in numbers, esp. brutally and indiscriminately", the first usage of which was "1588 J. PENRY Viewe Publ. Wants Wales 65 Men which make no conscience for gaine sake, to breake the law of the æternall, and massaker soules...are dangerous subjects".[2]

The term can also be used metaphorically for events that do not involve any deaths, such as the Saturday Night Massacre - the mass number of dismissals and resignations of political appointees during the Watergate scandal.

See also

References


Translations:

Massacre

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - massakre, nedslagtning, blodbad
v. tr. - massakrere, nedslagte, meje ned

Nederlands (Dutch)
uitmoorden, slachten, verminken (figuurlijk), moordpartij, afslachting (ook figuurlijk)

Français (French)
n. - (lit, fig) massacre
v. tr. - (lit) massacrer, (fig) démolir, massacrer (une langue)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Massaker
v. - massakrieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μακελειό, (ομαδική) σφαγή
v. - κατασφάζω, σφαγιάζω, κρεουργώ

Italiano (Italian)
massacrare, massacro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - massacre (m)
v. - massacrar

Русский (Russian)
резня, поражение, резать, устраивать резню

Español (Spanish)
n. - masacre, matanza
v. tr. - masacrar, hacer una matanza, matar en masa

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - massaker
v. - massakrera

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
大屠杀, 残杀

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 大屠殺
v. tr. - 大屠殺, 殘殺

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 많은 사람을 죽임, 철저한 패배
v. tr. - 대량 학살을 하다, 다른 사람을 욕하다, 확실하게 이기다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 大虐殺, 完敗
v. - 虐殺する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مذبحه (فعل) يقتل بلا رحمه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טבח, פוגרום, חורבן (מדוברת)‬
v. tr. - ‮טבח, השמיד, הביס, החריב‬


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Mentioned in

Attucks, Crispus (History)
Doeg (in the Old Testament)