carnage
UK /ˈkɑː.nɪdʒ/ · US /ˈkɑɹ.nɪd͡ʒ/ noun
Forms carnages
- noun Death and destruction. “There was carnage after the school play ended with 96 deaths.”
- noun The corpses, gore, etc. that remain after a massacre.
- noun (figurative, sports) Any great loss by a team; a game in which one team wins overwhelmingly. “The game against Sri Lanka and Australia was carnage with Australia winning by 287 runs.”
- noun (figurative, slang) A heavy drinking binge and its aftermath.
- noun (figurative, slang) Any chaotic situation.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French carnage, from a Norman or Picard variant Old Northern French) of Old French charnage, from char (“flesh”), or from Vulgar Latin *carnaticum (“slaughter of animals”), itself from Latin carnem, accusative of caro (“flesh”). By surface analysis, Latin carn- + -age.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Flesh of slain animals or men. A miltitude of dogs came to feast on the carnage. Macaulay.
- noun Great destruction of life, as in battle; bloodshed; slaughter; massacre; murder; havoc.
Etymology [F. carnage, LL. carnaticum tribute of animals, flesh of animals, fr. L. caro, carnis, flesh. See Carnal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “carnage”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details