Definition of sacrifice

• n. - The offering of anything to God, or to a god; consecratory rite.
• n. - Anything consecrated and offered to God, or to a divinity; an immolated victim, or an offering of any kind, laid upon an altar, or otherwise presented in the way of religious thanksgiving, atonement, or conciliation.
• n. - Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing; hence, also, the thing so devoted or given up; as, the sacrifice of interest to pleasure, or of pleasure to interest.
• n. - A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.
• n. - To make an offering of; to consecrate or present to a divinity by way of expiation or propitiation, or as a token acknowledgment or thanksgiving; to immolate on the altar of God, in order to atone for sin, to procure favor, or to express thankfulness; as, to sacrifice an ox or a sheep.
• n. - Hence, to destroy, surrender, or suffer to be lost, for the sake of obtaining something; to give up in favor of a higher or more imperative object or duty; to devote, with loss or suffering.
• n. - To destroy; to kill.
• n. - To sell at a price less than the cost or the actual value.
• v. i. - To make offerings to God, or to a deity, of things consumed on the altar; to offer sacrifice.