sacrifice

Pluralsacrifices

Formssacrifices, sacrificing, sacrificed

1. 1
   nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable

   The giving up or destruction of something valued for the sake of something else considered more important; also, the thing so given up.

   Moving to a smaller home was a sacrifice the family accepted to pay off their debts.

   Athletes know that real achievement demands sacrifice of comfort and free time.

   Similarsurrender, renunciation, price, loss, forfeiture

   Note

   The everyday sense still shows its religious origin. In older verse the thing given up becomes "a sacrifice to" some passion, as though the passion were a god. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet lie as "poor sacrifices to our enmity", and Gray's Eton College ode (1753) hands the ambitious "to bitter Scorn a sacrifice". Plainer prose uses "of" with the thing surrendered, as in the sacrifice of one's spare time.

2. 2
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To give up or destroy something of value for the sake of something else regarded as more important.

   She sacrificed a promising career to care for her aging parents.

   Good leaders sometimes sacrifice short-term profits for long-term trust.

   Similarforgo, surrender, forfeit, relinquish, renounce

   Note

   The object can be almost anything of value, including income, a career or a deer's life, and it can also be people. When Macaulay asks whether he "would willingly sacrifice the Puritans", the word means abandoning allies to win others over. Samuel Johnson's writers "sacrificing each other to malice" keep the older pattern of the noun, with "to" naming the passion served.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The killing (often by burning) of a person or animal as an offering to a deity, or later the offering of an object.

   Archaeologists found an altar where ritual sacrifice once took place.

   The priests performed a sacrifice at dawn to honor the harvest deity.

   Similaroffering, immolation

   Note

   The oldest sense, and the one the rest grow from: Latin sacrificium, built from sacer "sacred" and facere "to make", reached English through Old French sacrifise. Without an article it names the practice: Hobbes's beasts "offered in sacrifice", or Milton's Moloch in Paradise Lost (1667), "besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice". With an article it names a single rite, as in a sacrifice performed at dawn.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To offer a human being, an animal, or an object to a deity as a religious act.

   The priest sacrificed a young bull on the stone altar.

   Ancient communities would sacrifice their finest livestock to ensure a good harvest.

   Similaroffer, immolate, slaughter

   Note

   The verb came in as Middle English sacrificen, made from the noun with the infinitive ending -en. Its object is the victim, and "to" names the god. Thomas Browne lists victims as varied as men, horses, lions and eagles. A learned synonym, Molochize, is built on the name of Moloch, the idol of Milton's human sacrifice.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A person, animal, object, or other thing presented to a deity as an offering.

   The white heifer became the sacrifice offered at the spring rites.

   Worshippers brought grain and fruit as the sacrifice for their household god.

   Similaroffering, victim, oblation

   Note

   Here the word names the victim or gift rather than the rite, and a quick test is whether you could point at it. Dryden's All for Love (1677) has "the mute Sacrifice" that cannot reproach the priest. Marlowe and Nashe's Dido makes the Trojan Horse "a sacrifice t'appease Minerva's wrath". The offering need not be material, because the offering of prayer and praise counts too.

6. 6
   nounusually singular

   Jesus Christ's voluntary offering of himself, dying on the cross to atone for the sins of humankind.

   The hymn celebrates the sacrifice by which Christ redeemed the world.

   For believers, the cross stands as the supreme sacrifice for human sin.

   Note

   Christian theology uses the word for one event, and the definite article usually does the identifying: the sacrifice, Christ's sacrifice, the supreme sacrifice. No deity needs naming, because God the Father is understood. This is the offering that the sacrifice of the Mass is said either to renew or to give thanks for.

7. 7
   nounfigurativelycountable

   The offering of devotion, prayer, penitence, or thanksgiving to a deity in place of a material gift.

   The psalm describes heartfelt prayer as a sacrifice more acceptable than burnt offerings.

   Monks regarded their hours of penitence as a continual sacrifice of praise.

   Similaroffering

   Note

   Prayer and thanks count as an offering in their own right, and the phrase that carries the idea is "sacrifice of praise". It runs through Myles Coverdale's Bible of 1535, Thomas Cranmer's communion service of 1549 and the King James Bible of 1611, so it sounds liturgical rather than merely poetic. The plural works as well: worshippers bring "sacrifices of praise" to the house of the Lord.

8. 8
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To kill or destroy a person or animal; specifically, in the sciences, to kill an animal for an experiment or test.

   After collecting the data, the team sacrificed the test animals humanely.

   Protocol requires that scientists sacrifice the subjects only under anesthesia.

   Similareuthanize, kill, destroy, cull

   Note

   Laboratory writing uses this verb for killing an experimental animal and treats it as a routine step in a procedure, as in "the animals were sacrificed under anesthesia". The older, broader use had no ritual in view and could mean simply to put to death. In Tales of the East (1812) a cruel ruler "sacrificedst thy brethren on the slightest suspicion".

9. 9
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A deliberate giving up of one of your pieces to the opponent in order to gain a stronger position.

   The grandmaster's bishop sacrifice opened a path to checkmate.

   A well-timed sacrifice can shatter the opponent's defense.

   Note

   Chess borrows the word for a deliberate loss of material, and the piece given up is often named in front of it: a bishop sacrifice, a queen sacrifice. What matters is the choice. A piece simply lost to a blunder is not a sacrifice. The matching verb, to sacrifice a piece, takes that piece as its object.

10. 10
    verbfigurativelytransitive

    To deliberately let the opponent capture one of your pieces in order to gain a stronger position.

    He sacrificed his rook to expose the enemy king.

    Strong players will sacrifice material whenever the attack justifies it.

    Note

    The verb's object is a piece or, more abstractly, material, the chess player's word for pieces counted by their value. One sacrifices a rook to expose the king, or sacrifices material for an attack. The "to" or "for" clause names the compensation the player expects to receive.

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