bloodbath

noun

1. Indiscriminate killing or slaughter; a massacre.

   “There lay the steed; here lay the man; Gude friends that day did twin: They leuch na a' to the feast that cam Whan the het bluid-bath was done.”

   “He made a "Stockholm BLUTBAD" still famed in History (kind of open, ordered or permitted, Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies there), "Bloodbath," so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed he was lawful King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a bloodbath been the way to deal with them.”

   “In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.”

2. An aggressive or very violent contest or confrontation.

   “Although the Hampden Park blood bath of '94 caused Yale and Harvard to break off football relations for the next two years, they kept close watch on each other.”

3. (figuratively)An upset (as of a game with unexpected results, or a national presidential convention) or heavy defeat.

   “Robert Halfon, a senior Tory backbencher, warned that a general election now would be a “bloodbath” for his party.”

4. (figuratively)A large financial loss or massive layoff brought about by negative economic conditions.

   “In an interview after the victory, Daley sought to assure Blacks that there would be no personnel bloodbath at City Hall.”

   “The point is, Amodei is a salesman, and it’s in his interest to make his product appear inevitable and so powerful it’s scary. Axios framed Amodei’s economic prediction as a “white-collar bloodbath.””

5. (literally)A bath taken in warm blood used as a restorative or medical treatment.

   “On Blood-Baths: An Historical Notice. By Dr. Hecker. According to a dark tradition which is incidentally mentioned by Pliny, the ancient kings of Egypt used to bathe in human blood when they were seized with leprosy.”