hecatomb

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“
But the time for the hecatomb was approaching.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A large-scale sacrifice or slaughter.
  2. noun A sacrifice to the ancient Greek and Roman gods consisting originally of 100 oxen or cattle.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • But the time for the hecatomb was approaching. —  Robur the Conqueror
  • A hecatomb, all firstlings of the flock. —  The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cowper
  • So, in a more than different way, we shall find him — who had slain his hecatomb of hearts — helpless in the power of his one great love. —  The Love Affairs of Great Musicians
  • The hecatomb which is sacrificed to the magician, he receives as an oblation to his science, and conscious of possessing real endowments, the idol devours the meats that are offered to him without analysing the motives and expectations under which he is fed. —  The Martyrs of Science, or, The lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler
  • 'As for amusement, I could kill rats as I used to do; or slaughter a hecatomb of pheasants at Babington,' -- here the old man winced, though the word hecatomb reconciled him a little to the disagreeable allusion. —  John Caldigate
 

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Hecatomb has been looked up 269 times, favorited 0 times, listed 22 times, and commented on 4 times.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin hecatombē, from Greek hekatombē : hekaton, hundred; see dekm̥ in Indo-European roots + -bē, oxen; see gwou- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Latin hecatombē, from Greek ἑκατόμβη, a great public sacrifice, properly of one hundred oxen, but used in the earliest records in a general sense, from ἑκατόν, a hundred: see cent and hundred.
 

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/ˈhɛkətɑm/
by American Heritage

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