bloodbath

noun blood·bath \ ˈbləd-ˌbath , -ˌbäth \

Updated on: 18 Apr 2018

Definition of bloodbath

1 : a great slaughter

2 a : a notably fierce, violent, or destructive contest or struggle

the campaign has become a bloodbath

b : a major economic disaster

a market bloodbath

See bloodbath defined for English-language learners

Examples of bloodbath in a Sentence

Thousands of people were murdered in the bloodbath.
one side was so much better armed that the battle quickly turned into a bloodbath

Recent Examples of bloodbath from the Web

Anyone expecting Tuesday's hearing to be a bloodbath, however, likely came away disappointed.

— issie lapowsky, WIRED, "If Congress Doesn't Understand Facebook, What Hope Do Its Users Have?," 10 Apr. 2018
He was buried on that tiny Pacific island, along with 1,000 or so other Marines and sailors who died during the three-day bloodbath.

— salem statesman journal, OregonLive.com, "Remains of Marine killed in WWII heading home to Oregon," 4 Apr. 2018
The bloodbath came after three Australian players -- team captain Smith, vice-captain David Warner and opener Bancroft -- were banned after admitting to ball tampering during the third Test match in the team's series in South Africa.

— euan mckirdy, CNN, "After a week of bad headlines, is it time for a reckoning of Australian cricket?," 30 Mar. 2018
The latter is anyway deep in its own restructuring quagmire, while the former is most successful in very similar products as Barclays, so a takeover would be a bloodbath.

— paul j. davies, WSJ, "Barclays: Too Big For a Deal, Too Small to Compete," 26 Mar. 2018
Here are two of the best boxers of their era, two middleweight knockout artists whose first fight was, if not the bloodbath many expected, a highly skilled, compulsively watchable affair.

— greg bishop, SI.com, "Boxing Is Blowing Its Marquee Matchup Because the Sport Can't Get Out of Its Own Way," 20 Mar. 2018
The last 24 hours have been a bloodbath on the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple all posting substantial drops, but the year-to-date numbers are even more worrisome.

— chris morris, Fortune, "Bitcoin Investors Have Lost Nearly $87 Billion This Year," 2 Feb. 2018
Trucking is going to be the next great automation bloodbath.

— alexis c. madrigal, The Atlantic, "Could Self-Driving Trucks Be Good for Truckers?," 1 Feb. 2018
Organizers of the national walkouts called for such measures as tighter background checks on gun purchases and a ban on assault weapons like the one used in the Florida bloodbath.

— Washington Post, "School-walkout unity also lays bare division among students," 17 Mar. 2018

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