Search the Dictionary

Attended with, or involving, bloodshed; sanguinary; esp., marked by great slaughter or cruelty; as, a bloody battle.

ation; as, a legislative body; a clerical body. A numerous body led unresistingly to the slaughter. Prescott.

Tending to excite laughter or contempt by extravagant images, or by a contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it, as when a trifling subject is treated with mock gravity; jocular; ironical. It is a dispute among the critics, whether burlesque poetry runs best in heroic verse, like that of the Dispensary…

One who slaughters animals, or dresses their flesh for market; one whose occupation it is to kill animals for food.

The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and needlessly. That dreadful butchering of one another. Addison.

Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual barbarity; great or cruel slaughter. Shak. The perpetration of human butchery. Prescott.

Loud or immoderate laughter; -- often a symptom of hysterical or maniacal affections. Hideous grimaces . . . attended this unusual cachinnation. Sir W. Scott.

Consisting of, or accompanied by, immoderate laughter. Cachinnatory buzzes of approval. Carlyle.

A law or rule. Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self- slaughter. Shak.

sical. "Birds that are most canorous." Sir T. Browne. A long, lound, and canorous peal of laughter. De Quincey.

To take prisoner; to capture. Their inhabitans slaughtered and captived. Burke.

Great destruction of life, as in battle; bloodshed; slaughter; massacre; murder; havoc. The more fearful carnage of the Bloody Circuit. Macaulay.

The thief condemned, in law already dead. Pope. No flocks that range the valley free, To slaughter I condemn. Goldsmith.

as the muscular parts of an animal body; to shake with irregular spasms, as in excessive laughter, or in agony from grief or pain. With emotions which checked his voice and convulsed his powerful frame. Macaulay.

Reserved; formal; close; cold. [Obs.] "A costive brain." Prior. "Costive of laughter." B. Jonson. You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, but without being costive. Lord Chesterfield.

cracks or reports, frequently repeated. As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. Eccl. vii. 6.

k out; to choose and gather or collect; as, to cuil flowers. From his herd he culls, For slaughter, from the fairest of his bulls. Dryden. Whitest honey in fairy gardens culled. Tennyson.

enemy. -- To cut to pieces. (a) To cut into pieces; as, to cut cloth to pieces. (b) To slaughter; as, to cut an army to pieces. -- To cut a play (Drama), to shorten it by leaving out passages, to adapt it for the stage. -- To cut rates (Railroads, etc.), to reduce the charges for transportation below the rates esta…

Full of death or slaughter; murderous; destructive; bloody. These eyes behold The deathful scene. Pope.

evil spirit; devilish; as, a demoniac being; demoniacal practices. Sarcastic, demoniacal laughter. Thackeray.