bloodbath
/ˈblʌdˌbæθ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Indiscriminate killing or slaughter; a massacre.
noun
An aggressive or very violent contest or confrontation.
noun
An upset (as of a game with unexpected results, or a national presidential convention) or heavy defeat.
noun
A large financial loss or massive layoff brought about by negative economic conditions.
Example Sentences
- "There lay the steed; here lay the man; Gude friends that day did twin: They leuch na a' to the feast that cam Whan the het bluid-bath was done."
- "He made a "Stockholm BLUTBAD" still famed in History (kind of open, ordered or permitted, Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies there), "Bloodbath," so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed he was lawful King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a bloodbath been the way to deal with them."
- "In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay."
- "Although the Hampden Park blood bath of '94 caused Yale and Harvard to break off football relations for the next two years, they kept close watch on each other."
- "Robert Halfon, a senior Tory backbencher, warned that a general election now would be a “bloodbath” for his party."
- "In an interview after the victory, Daley sought to assure Blacks that there would be no personnel bloodbath at City Hall."
Etymology
From blood + bath, the latter used referring to a metaphorical deluge. Compare West Frisian bloedbad (“bloodbath”), Dutch bloedbad (“bloodbath”), German Blutbad (“bloodbath”), Danish blodbad (“bloodbath”), Norwegian Bokmål blodbad (“bloodbath”), Swedish blodbad (“bloodbath”), Icelandic blóðbad (“bloodbath”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈblʌdˌbæθ/
- British English: /ˈblʌdˌbɑːθ/