battue (n.)

  1. a hunt in which beaters force the game to flee in the direction of the hunter

  2. indiscriminate slaughter; a bloodbath took place when the leaders of the plot surrendered; ten days after the bloodletting Hitler gave the action its name; the valley is no stranger to bloodshed and murder; a huge prison battue was ordered

    [ Syn: bloodbath , bloodletting , bloodshed ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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