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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Massacre

Măs'sa-cre, n.

noun

(măs/sa-ker), n. [Fr. massacre, It. massacro, L. Lat. mazacrium, from Prov. Ger. metzgern, metzger, to kill cattle, hence metzger, a butcher.]

  1. The killing of human beings by indiscriminate slaughter; murder of numbers with cruelty or atrocity, or contrary to the usages of civilized people; cold-blooded destruction of life; butchery; carnage.
  2. Murder. [Obs.] Shak.

Syn.—MASSACRE, BUTCHERY, CARNAGE. Massacre denoted originally the killing of victims for sacrifice. It now denotes the promiscuous slaughter of many; and it is therefore a gross error (though sometimes committed) to speak of massacring a single individual. Butchery refers to cold-blooded cruelty in the killing of men as if they were brute beasts. Carnage points to slaughter as producing the heaped-up bodies of the slain. I'll find a day to massacre them all, And raze their faction and their family. Shak. If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, Behold this patron of thy butcheries. Shak. Such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable! and taste The savor of death from all things there That live. Milton.

Măs'sa-cre, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. MASSACRED; p. pr. & vb. n. MASSACRING.] [Fr. massacrer. See supra.] To murder with circumstances of cruelty; to kill with indiscriminate violence, without authority or necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher; to slaughter. “If James should be pleased to massacre them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion.” Macaulay.