massacre Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the savage and excessive killing of many people
    butchery; carnage; mass murder; slaughter.
  2. verb kill a large number of people indiscriminately
    mow down; slaughter.
    • The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda

WordNet

Mas"sa*cre noun
Etymology
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. máitan.
Definitions
  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. St. Valentine's Day massacre; Amritsar massacre; the Wounded Knee massacre.
  2. Murder. Obs. Shak. Syn. -- Massacre, Butchery, Carnage. Massacre denotes the promiscuous slaughter of many who can not make resistance, or much resistance. 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, Brhold this pattern of thy butcheries. Shak.
    Such a scent I draw Of carnage, prey innumerable ! Milton.
Mas"sa*cre transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. F. massacrer. See Massacre, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Massacred ; present participle & verbal noun Massacring
Definitions
  1. 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 1913