slaughterhouse

slaughterhouse — noun

1. a building or facility where farm animals such as cows, pigs, and sheep are kill

1.nounB2
Definition

a building or facility where farm animals such as cows, pigs, and sheep are killed and their bodies are prepared as meat for people to eat

Example

The farmer drove the cows to the slaughterhouse early in the morning.

preposition pattern: drove [animals] to the slaughterhouse

Tariq works at a slaughterhouse and helps prepare the meat for delivery.

works at a [place] to describe someone's job

Common collocations
  • at a slaughterhouse
  • work at a slaughterhouse
  • close a slaughterhouse
  • slaughterhouse inspection
  • slaughterhouse waste
Synonyms
  • abattoir

    formal term, more common in official or regulatory contexts

  • meatpacking plant

    American English; emphasises the processing and packaging of meat

Usage Note

Often used in discussions about food production, animal welfare, and food safety regulations. The formal equivalent is abattoir.

Common Mistakes

I bought beef at the slaughterhouse.
I bought beef at the butcher's shop.
a slaughterhouse is where animals are killed and first processed; a butcher's shop is where meat is sold to customers.

Word family

  • slaughter
    verbB2
  • slaughter
    nounB2
  • slaughterer
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Slaughterhouse is the most common everyday term for a facility where animals are killed for meat. Abattoir is a formal or euphemistic term from French, frequently used in government regulations, industry documents, and news reports to sound more clinical. Butchery can be ambiguous — it usually refers to a shop where meat is sold to customers rather than the place animals are killed. Meatpacking plant is the preferred term in American English for large industrial facilities that both slaughter animals and process the meat into packaged products. If you are writing informally about the place itself, slaughterhouse is the safest choice; for official documents, use abattoir or meatpacking plant.

slaughterhouse ↗abattoirbutcherymeatpacking plant

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • slaughterhouse regulations
  • slaughterhouse floor

Prepositions

Etymology

Old NorseOld EnglishEnglish

Slaughterhouse is a compound word formed from 'slaughter' (from Old Norse 'slátr', meaning butcher's meat, combined with Old English 'sleaht', meaning a killing) and 'house' (from Old English 'hūs', a shelter or building). The word has been used since the 14th century to describe a building where animals are killed for food.