BLOODSHED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bloodshed mean? 

• BLOODSHED (noun)
  The noun BLOODSHED has 2 senses:

1. the shedding of blood resulting in murder

2. indiscriminate slaughter

  Familiarity information: BLOODSHED used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLOODSHED (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The shedding of blood resulting in murder

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

bloodshed; gore

Context example:

he avenged the bloodshed of his kinsmen

Hypernyms ("bloodshed" is a kind of...):

execution; murder; slaying (unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by a human being)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Indiscriminate slaughter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

battue; bloodbath; bloodletting; bloodshed

Context example:

a huge prison battue was ordered

Hypernyms ("bloodshed" is a kind of...):

butchery; carnage; mass murder; massacre; slaughter (the savage and excessive killing of many people)

 Context examples 

There will come bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mistaken.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That Wolf Larsen had turned the liquor loose among his men surprised me, but he evidently knew their psychology and the best method of cementing in cordiality, what had begun in bloodshed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

For a long time I could not conceive how one man could go forth to murder his fellow, or even why there were laws and governments; but when I heard details of vice and bloodshed, my wonder ceased and I turned away with disgust and loathing.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with vengeance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)