Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SAC'RI-FICE, v.t. [sac'rifize; L. sacrifico; Fr. sacrificer; Sp. sacrificar; It. sacrificare; L. sacer, sacred, and facio, to make.]

1. To offer to God in homage or worship, by killing and consuming, as victims on an altar; to immolate, either as an atonement for sin, or to procure favor, or to express thankfulness; as, to sacrifice an ox or a lamb. 2 Sam. vi.
2. To destroy, surrender or suffer to be lost for the sake of obtaining something; as, to sacrifice the peace of the church to a little vain curiosity. We should never sacrifice health to pleasure, nor integrity to fame.
3. To devote with loss. Condemn'd to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance and to empty fears. – Prior.
4. To destroy; to kill.