[a. F. carnage (16th c. in Littré), ad. It. carnaggio ‘carnage, slaughter, murther; also all manner of flesh meate’ (Florio, 1611):—late L. carnāticum flesh-meat, also, the flesh-meat supplied by tenants to their feudal lords.
OFr. had the corresp. word charnage, ONF. carnage, ‘flesh of animals, meat, feast of flesh, season or day during which flesh is eaten’; it stills exists dialectally.]
† 1. (See quots.) Obs. (only in Dicts.)
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Carnage, flesh-time, or the season wherein ’tis lawful to eat flesh. Also a term in Venery, signifying that flesh which is given the dogs after hunting.
1662. so in Phillips.
1721–1800. Bailey, Carnage, Flesh that is given to Dogs after the Chace.
2. Carcases collectively; a heap of dead bodies, esp. of men slain in battle. ? Obs. (or confused with next).
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 268. Such a sent I [Death] draw Of carnage, prey innumerable.
1714. Gay, Trivia, II. 471. As vultures o’er a camp … Snuff up the future carnage of the fight.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 124. These [animals of the forest] mostly live upon accidental carnage.
1842. Barham, Ingold. Leg., Black Mousquetaire. Where those, who scorn’d to fly or yield In one promiscuous carnage lie.
3. The slaughter of a great number, esp. of men; butchery, massacre.
Frequent in Holland, then rare till late in the 18th c.
1600. Holland, Livy, II. 16. The carnage and execution was no lesse after the conflict than during the fight. Ibid. (1601), Pliny, VII. vii. Such as delight only in carnage and bloudshed.
1696. Phillips, Carnage, a great slaughter.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xiii. 281. A slight resistance was followed by a dreadful carnage.
1813. Byron, Br. Abydos, II. xx. Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it—peace!
b. Slaughter personified.
1814. Byron, Lara, II. x. Carnage smiled upon her daily dead.
1816. Wordsw., Thanksgiv. Ode, viii. Vea, Carnage is Thy daughter.
4. Comb., as carnage-field, -lover; carnage-colo(u)red, -covered, -loving adjs.
1721. Cibber, Refusal, II. These Carnage Lovers have such a Meanness in their Souls.
1800. Campbell, Pleas. Hope, 92. Carnage-cover’d fields.
1826. E. Irving, Babylon, I. II. 90. The dragon, carnage-coloured, signifies Rome. Ibid., II. VI. 131. The carnage-loving character of the infidel Antichrist.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. (1857), III. II. VI. viii. 121. One of those Carnage-fields, such as you read of by the name ‘Glorious Victory.’
