Word: sacrifice Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English sacrificen (“to offer a sacrifice to a deity”), from sacrifice (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs). Pronunciation: /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/, /-faɪz/, /ˈsæk.ɹɪˌfaɪs/, /ˈsæk.ɹəˌfaɪs/, /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.fɑes/ 1. To offer (a human being or an animal, or an object) to a deity. Labels: transitive Example: And there ſhall bee no leauened bread ſeene with thee in all thy coaſts ſeuen dayes, neither ſhall there any thing of the fleſh, which thou ſacrificedſt the firſt day at Euen, remaine all night, vntill the morning. Example: [B]oth the muſes and the graces are his hard Miſtriſſes, though he daily Invocate them, though he ſacrifize Hecatombs, they ſtil look a ſquint, […] 2. To destroy or kill (a human being or an animal); specifically (sciences), to kill (an animal) for a scientific experiment or test. Labels: broadly, figuratively, transitive Example: Condemn'd to ſacrifice his childiſh Years / To babling Ign'rance, and to empty Fears; […] Example: Heaven chastises thee, Baharkan! Thou wast cruel, vindictive, and inexorable. With thee humanity had no value. Thou sacrificedst thy brethren on the slightest suspicion. 3. To destroy or surrender (something) for the sake of something else regarded as more urgent or valuable. Labels: broadly, figuratively, transitive Example: Venison has many advantages over meat from factory farms, although it still requires a hunter to sacrifice the life of a deer. Example: Deuce take lady S⁠⸺; and if I know D⁠⸺⁠y, he is a rawboned faced fellow, not handsome, nor visibly so young as you say: she sacrifices two thousand pounds a year, and keeps only six hundred. 4. Of a batter: to advance (one or more runners on base) by batting the ball so it can be fielded, placing the batter out but with insufficient time to put the runner(s) out. Labels: broadly, figuratively, transitive 5. To sell (something) at less than its value, thus incurring a monetary loss. Labels: broadly, dated, figuratively, slang, transitive Example: A newspaper advertisement announces that "A professional gentleman is instructed to sacrifice Three young sound Horses at half their cost." We wonder what deity horses could be sacrificed to? 6. To intentionally allow (a piece) to be captured by the opponent in order to improve one's position in the game. Labels: broadly, figuratively, transitive 7. To offer a human being or an animal, or an object, to a deity. Labels: intransitive Example: All things come alike to all: there is one euent to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the cleane, and to the vncleane; to him that ſacrificeth, and to him that ſacrificeth not: as is the good, ſo is the ſinner, and hee that ſweareth, as he that feareth an oath. Example: Like a coy maiden, eaſe, vvhen courted moſt, / Fartheſt retires—an idol, at vvhoſe ſhrine / VVho oft'neſt ſacrifice are favor'd leaſt. 8. Of a batter: to bat the ball so that it can be fielded, placing the batter out but allowing one or more runners on base to advance. Labels: broadly, figuratively, intransitive 9. To make a bid of a contract which is unlikely to be fulfilled, in the hope that that the player will incur fewer penalty points than the points likely to be gained by opponents in making their contract. Labels: broadly, figuratively, intransitive 10. To celebrate Holy Communion or Mass. Labels: broadly, figuratively, intransitive Example: For what power but God's can make good the promise of tendering the Body and Blood of Christ, as a visible mean^([sic]) to convey His Spirit? And he that goes about to make this change by consecrating the eucharist, must needs be understood to acknowledge this power of God's; but this is not that acknowledgment, which sacrificing importeth, but that, which every act of religion implieth. He that sacrificeth, acknowledging that which he sacrificeth, with all that he hath, to [come from or belong to]^([sic]) God, to testify this acknowledgment, abandoneth that which he sacrificeth to be destroyed in testimony of it.