the.com/slaughter
The moment competition stops pretending to be fair and starts being arithmetic.
means The brutal killing of people or animals in large numbers, or a crushing, one-sided defeat.
from From Old Norse 'slátr,' meaning butcher's meat or slaughtered flesh, related to 'slá' (to strike or slay) — the same root family that gives us 'slay.' It entered English through the Danelaw, carrying the blunt, practical vocabulary of killing animals for food before it widened to cover the killing of people, and later softened further into sports and business talk, where getting 'slaughtered' just means losing badly.
- original meaning
- from old norse for butchering animals
- sports usage
- score gap so wide mercy rules kick in
- etymological cousin
- related to slay, same violent root
- modern softening
- now also means acing an exam