''abattoir'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''abattoir'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250815012548-00-⌔

abattoir - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

abattoir (plural abattoirs)

• A public slaughterhouse for cattle, sheep, etc. [Early 19${}^{th}$ century.]¹
  • ✤ Once the cows reach maturity, they’re sent to the abattoir.
• A place or event likened to a slaughterhouse, because of great carnage or bloodshed.²
  • ✤ Synonym: bloodbath
  • ✤ The army’s raid on the enemy turned into a major abattoir.
  • ✤ The corridors where North Korean troops would be advancing [in a hypothetical invasion of South Korea] would almost certainly be turned into human abattoirs.³
  • ✤ “Now, down here we have the medium security cells and the various abattoirs. Be sure to reserve your spot on the sign-in sheet ‘cause the abattoirs get crazy busy.”⁴

Etymology

Borrowed from French abattoir, from abattre (“to slaughter”) (cognate to abate) + -oir (“-ory”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈæb.əˌtwɑː(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈæb.əˌtwɑɹ/, /ˈæb.əˌtwɑ/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Audio (Canada): 🔊
• Audio (Australian): 🔊
• Hyphenation: ab‧at‧toir

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abattoir”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 2. ↩

2. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ↩

3. 2017 April 19, Franz-Stefan Gady, “What Would the Second Korean War Look Like?”, in The Diplomat ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

4. 2021 September 2, Sam Johnson & Chris Marcil, “The Cloak of Duplication” (1:58 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows ‎${}^{[2]}$, season 3, episode 2, spoken by The Guide (Kristen Schaal): ↩

Link to original

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