verb. (trade).—1. To sell at a SACRIFICE (q.v.). Hence SLAUGHTER-HOUSE = a shop or auction-room where goods are bought or sold for what they will bring; SLAUGHTERER = (1) a vendor at cost, and (2) a buyer for re-manufacture: as books for pulp, cloth for shoddy, &c.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 333. One East-end ‘SLAUGHTERER’ … used habitually to tell that he prayed for wet Saturday afternoons, because it put 20l. extra in his pocket!… Under such circumstances … the poor workman is at the mercy of the SLAUGHTERER.
SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. See INNOCENT.
