abattoir

[ ab-uh-twahr, ab-uh-twahr ]

noun

1. a slaughterhouse.

abattoir

/ ˈæbəˌtwɑː /

noun

1. another name for slaughterhouse

Word History and Origins

Origin of abattoir¹

1810–20; < French, equivalent to abatt ( re ) to slaughter ( abate ) + -oir -ory ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of abattoir¹

C19: French, from abattre to fell

Example Sentences

Germany’s largest pork plant was shuttered for a month this summer after more than 1,000 workers tested positive for Covid-19, and additional abattoirs also faced temporary closures from outbreaks.

From Fortune

Such an abattoir would never be permitted to continue in the United States, or indeed the developed (and white) world.

From The Daily Beast

A few weeks later the monks laid siege to a Muslim-owned abattoir in Colombo to halt the slaughter of cattle.

From The Daily Beast

The abattoir was being used as a distribution plant for the meat of cattle slaughtered outside the city.

From The Daily Beast

A view down into the wild, Art Deco abattoir now called the 1933 Center in Shanghai.

From The Daily Beast

And there is the master of our largest and goriest abattoir.

From Project Gutenberg

It was only a scratch and he had been knocked down like a beef in an abattoir by an unseen enemy, on whom he could not lay hands!

From Project Gutenberg

Have you ever seen a herd of cattle being driven to abattoir on a fine May morning?

From Project Gutenberg

Ay—and the abattoir is far, though its perfume is nigh; it is thrice a hundred yards from hence.

From Project Gutenberg

Probably it would be hung up in some abattoir, where oxen are driven in at one end, and tinned meat taken out at the other.

From Project Gutenberg