slaughter
part of speech
verb (slaughter, slaughters, slaughtered, slaughtering); noun (slaughter, uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) To slaughter animals means to kill them for food. tree →
2) To slaughter people means to kill many of them cruelly, for example in a war. tree →
3) (noun) Slaughter is the killing of animals for meat, or the cruel killing of many people. tree →
4) (informal) To slaughter a team or player means to beat them very easily: "we got slaughtered 8–0". tree →
sense in the lessons
In farming and food lessons, animals are slaughtered to make meat, under rules about welfare. In history, slaughter describes terrible battles. In sport talk, "slaughter" is an exaggeration for a big win. Phrases: slaughter animals, the slaughter of, like lambs to the slaughter, get slaughtered.
examples
- Cattle are slaughtered to provide beef. tree →
- The battle ended in terrible slaughter. tree →
- We got slaughtered 7–0 in the final. tree →
- The farmer sent the pigs to be slaughtered. tree →
- "Like lambs to the slaughter" means going without knowing the danger. tree →
- The wolves slaughtered several sheep in the night. tree →
- The storm still continuing, he was obliged to slaughter his yoke oxen for food. tree →
note
Pronounced "SLAW-ter". A slaughterhouse (or abattoir) is where animals are killed for meat. The sport meaning is informal and an exaggeration. It is a strong, upsetting word in its war meaning.
In the corpora
- "Processed" means farm animals were slaughtered for meat.
- "Sent to the knacker's yard" (old-fashioned UK) means an old horse was sent to be slaughtered.
- "Went to the glue factory" is a joking way to say an old horse was slaughtered.
- And the king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Arameans with a great slaughter.
- Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that were slain by Him?
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «slaughter» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.