abattoir

ab·at·toir | \ ˈa-bə-ˌtwär

How to pronounce abattoir (audio)

, -ˌtwȯr, -ˌtȯr\

plural abattoirs

Definition of abattoir

: a place where animals are butchered : slaughterhouse Mr. Foley worked previously at a pig abattoir and reckoned he was beyond such queasiness.— Tony Horwitz Bulls are precious, a good one fetching $400 or more at the abattoir …— Peter Meredith

Examples of abattoir in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web As an abattoir of reason, the ad at least comports with the spirit of this bailout. — Washington Post, "Ohio’s Great Chinese Power Conspiracy Theory," 4 Sep. 2019 Frank Lee bucked free from the back of a delivery truck chauffeuring him to his doom at a small abattoir in Brooklyn in April 2016. — Zolan Kanno-youngs, WSJ, "Escape From New York: Slaughterhouse Refugees Have a Country Place," 1 Oct. 2018 That first scene describes, in graphic detail, the slaughter of a 700-pound pig in an abattoir in Gascony, France. — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, "Can We Eat Meat Ethically? Ask Butcher-Memoirist Camas Davis," 25 July 2018 And an abattoir in Scotland that slaughters about 60 percent of the pigs there has transported some of its animals to locations in neighboring England because the company had run out of carbon dioxide. — Amie Tsang, New York Times, "U.K. Fears for Its Beer and Crumpets. Blame a Carbon Dioxide Shortage.," 29 June 2018 Scotland’s biggest pig abattoir was forced to close because of shortages of the gas, which is used to stun the animals before slaughter. — Billy Perrigo, Time, "Brits Are Running Low on Crumpets and Beer as CO2 in Short Supply," 2 July 2018 Even Nancy Meyers' happy kitchens are foodie abattoirs in their way. — Jonathan Gold, latimes.com, "Jonathan Gold recommends 10 food-centric films," 3 May 2018 Back then on Fulton, actual meatpackers, not the glossy magazine-friendly Publican Quality Meats butchers, hosed down the sidewalks in front of their abattoirs. — Michael Nagrant, RedEye Chicago, "At BLVD, you'll find approachable fine dining in a glamorous setting," 6 Oct. 2017 The transition from abattoir to a lab that built life-saving robots seemed fitting. — Caroline Lester, The Atlantic, "What Happens When Your Bomb-Defusing Robot Becomes a Weapon," 26 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abattoir.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

11 Nov 2019

Time Traveler for abattoir

The first known use of abattoir was in 1809

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