massacre(n = noun.act) butchery, carnage, mass murder, slaughter - the savage and excessive killing of many people;
is a kind of execution, murder, slaying
has particulars: battue, bloodbath, bloodletting, bloodshed, alamo, battle of little bighorn, battle of the little bighorn, custer's last stand, little bighorn
Derived form verb massacre₁

   massacre(v = verb.change) mow down, slaughter - kill a large number of people indiscriminately; "The Hutus massacred the Tutsis in Rwanda"
is one way to kill
Derived form noun massacre₁
Sample sentences: They want to massacre the prisoners

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; the St. Valentine's Day massacre; the Amritsar massacre; the Wounded Knee massacre. [1913 Webster]

2.  Murder. Shak. [1913 Webster]
"I'll find a day to massacre them all,
And raze their faction and their family." [1913 Webster]
"If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Brhold this pattern of thy butcheries." [1913 Webster]
"Such a scent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable!" [1913 Webster]

   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. [1913 Webster]
"If James should be pleased to massacre them all, as Maximian had massacred the Theban legion." [1913 Webster]

massacre, n. & v.
--n.
1 a general slaughter (of persons, occasionally of animals).
2 an utter defeat or destruction.
--v.tr.
1 make a massacre of.
2 murder (esp. a large number of people) cruelly or violently.

Etymology:
OF, of unkn. orig.

N  killing, homicide, manslaughter, murder, assassination, trucidation, iccusion, effusion of blood, blood, blood shed, gore, slaughter, carnage, butchery, battue, massacre, fusillade, noyade, thuggery, Thuggism, deathblow, finishing stroke, coup de grace, quietus, execution, judicial murder, martyrdom, butcher, slayer, murderer, Cain, assassin, terrorist, cutthroat, garroter, bravo, Thug, Moloch, matador, sabreur, guet-a-pens, gallows, executioner, man-eater, apache, hatchet man, highbinder, regicide, parricide, matricide, fratricide, infanticide, feticide, foeticide, uxoricide, vaticide, suicide, felo de se, hara-kiri, suttee, Juggernath, immolation, auto da fe, holocaust, suffocation, strangulation, garrote, hanging, lapidation, deadly weapon, Aceldama, slaughtering, phthisozoics, sport, sporting, the chase, venery, hunting, coursing, shooting, fishing, pig- sticking, sportsman, huntsman, fisherman, hunter, Nimrod, slaughterhouse, meat packing plant, shambles, abattoir, fatal accident, violent death, casualty, killing, murderous, slaughterous, sanguinary, sanguinolent, blood stained, blood thirsty, homicidal, red handed, bloody, bloody minded, ensanguined, gory, thuggish, mortal, fatal, lethal, dead, deadly, mortiferous, lethiferous, unhealthy internecine, suicidal, sporting, piscatorial, piscatory, in at the death, assassination has never changed the history of the.

VB  kill, put to death, slay, shed blood, murder, assassinate, butcher, slaughter, victimize, immolate, massacre, take away life, deprive of life, make away with, put an end to, despatch, dispatch, burke, settle, do for, strangle, garrote, hang, throttle, choke, stifle, suffocate, stop the breath, smother, asphyxiate, drown, saber, cut down, cut to pieces, cut the throat, jugulate, stab, run through the body, bayonet, eviscerate, put to the sword, put to the edge of the sword, shoot dead, blow one's brains out, brain, knock on the head, stone, lapidate, give a deathblow, deal a deathblow, give a quietus, give a coupe de grace, behead, bowstring, electrocute, gas, hunt, shoot, cut off, nip in the bud, launch into eternity, send to one's last account, sign one's death warrant, strike the death knell of, give no quarter, pour out blood like water, decimate, run amuck, wade knee deep in blood, imbrue one's hands in blood, die a violent death, welter in one's blood, dash out one's brains, blow out one's brains, commit suicide, kill oneself, make away with oneself, put an end to oneself, put an end to it all.