Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAS'SA-CER, or MAS'SA-CRE, v.t.

To murder human beings with circumstances of cruelty; to kill men with indiscriminate violence, without authority or necessity, and contrary to the usages of nations; to butcher human beings. Nymphidicus endeavored to save himself in a tent, but was pursued and massacred on the spot. Murphy's Tacitus.