Adjacent Words

massacre definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the savage and excessive killing of many people [syn: slaughter, massacre, mass murder, carnage, butchery] v
1: kill a large number of people indiscriminately; "The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda" [syn: massacre, slaughter, mow down]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle French Date: circa 1578 1. the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty 2. a cruel or wanton murder 3. a wholesale slaughter of animals 4. an act of complete destruction <the author's massacre of traditional federalist presuppositions — R. G. McCloskey> II. transitive verb (massacred; massacring) Date: 1581 1. to kill by massacre ; slaughter 2. mangle 2 <words were misspelled and syntax massacred — Bice Clemow> • massacrer noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a general slaughter (of persons, occasionally of animals). 2 an utter defeat or destruction. --v.tr. 1 make a massacre of. 2 murder (esp. a large number of people) cruelly or violently. Etymology: OF, of unkn. orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Massacre Mas"sa*cre, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Massacred; p. pr. & vb. n. Massacring.] [Cf. F. massacrer. See Massacre, n.] To kill in considerable numbers where much resistance can not be made; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher; to slaughter; -- limited to the killing of human beings. If James should be pleased to massacre them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion. --Macaulay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Massacre Mas"sa*cre, n. [F., fr. LL. mazacrium; cf. Prov. G. metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, G. metzger a butcher, and LG. matsken to cut, hew, OHG. meizan to cut, Goth. m['a]itan.] 1. The killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; as, the massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(massacres, massacring, massacred) 1. A massacre is the killing of a large number of people at the same time in a violent and cruel way. Maria lost her 62-year-old mother in the massacre. ...reports of massacre, torture and starvation. N-VAR 2. If people are massacred, a large number of them are attacked and killed in a violent and cruel way. 300 civilians are believed to have been massacred by the rebels... Troops indiscriminately massacred the defenceless population. VERB: be V-ed, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Butcher (human beings), murder, kill, slay, slaughter. II. n. Butchery, slaughter, carnage.

Moby Thesaurus

annihilate, annihilating, annihilation, assassination, assault, attack, battering, bloodbath, bloodshed, bump off, butcher, butchering, butchery, carnage, commit carnage, commit genocide, commit mass murder, decimate, decimation, depopulate, destroy, disorderliness, eliminate, eradicate, execute, execution, exterminate, extermination, final solution, forcible seizure, genocide, holocaust, kill, killing, laying waste, liquidate, liquidation, looting, mass destruction, mass murder, mow down, murder, murder wholesale, murdering, obliterate, obstreperousness, onslaught, pillaging, pogrom, race extermination, race-murder, rape, riot, rioting, sacking, saturnalia of blood, slaughter, slaughtering, slay, slay en masse, slaying, sowing with salt, unruliness, violation, wholesale murder, wipe out