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. máitan.] 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.
2. Murder. 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.