massacre

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massacre Massacre of the Innocents the killing by order of Herod the Great, after the birth of Jesus, of all boy children under two years old (the Innocents) in Bethlehem. In the 19th-century British parliament, the phrase was also used informally for measures which had to be ‘sacrificed’ at the end of a session for want of time.

See also Massacre of St Bartholomew, Massacre of Glencoe, Peterloo massacre.

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