| Definitions | | massacre |
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noun
- The intentional killing of a considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people.
- the on St. Bartholomew's Day
- St. Valentine's Day
- Amritsar
- the Wounded Knee
- (obsolete) Murder.
- 1593, w:William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third
- :The tyrannous and bloody act is done,"
- :The most arch deed of piteous
- :That ever yet this land was guilty of.
verb (massacres, massacring, massacred)
- (transitive) 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.
- 1849, w:Thomas Babington Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History Of England From the Accession of James II
- :If James should be pleased to them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion
Etymology: French, from Late Latin mazacrium; compare Provincial German metzgern, metzgen, to kill cattle, German metzger a butcher, and Low German matsken = to cut, hew, Old High German meizan to cut, Gothic míitan. See also French massacrer''
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Full Definition of massacre
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