Other forms: bloodbaths
A bloodbath is killing on a huge scale. A bloodbath at the border, avert a bloodbath, the match was a bloodbath.
It is a plain English compound, unlike massacre, which came from French, and it is more vivid and less official for that reason. It is also used loosely in business and sport for a heavy defeat or a wave of job losses.
1nounbloodbathKilling on a huge scale.
“The battle turned into a bloodbath, with thousands killed on both sides.”
bloodbath is a killing.
Blood plus bath, on the model of the same compound in Dutch and German.
From blood + bath, the latter used referring to a metaphorical deluge. Compare West Frisian bloedbad (“bloodbath”), Dutch bloedbad (“bloodbath”), German Blutbad (“bloodbath”), Danish blodbad (“bloodbath”), Norwegian Bokmål blodbad (“bloodbath”), Swedish blodbad (“bloodbath”), Icelandic blóðbad (“bloodbath”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA