Sacrifice

Sacrifice, sak′ri-fīs, v.t. to offer up, esp. on the altar of a divinity: to destroy or give up for something else: to devote or destroy with loss or suffering: to kill.—v.i. to make offerings to God.—n. the fundamental institution of all natural religions, primarily a sacramental meal at which the communicants are a deity and his worshippers, and the elements the flesh and blood of a sacred victim: the act of sacrificing or offering to a deity, esp. a victim on an altar: that which is sacrificed or offered: destruction or loss of anything to gain some object: that which is given up, destroyed, or lost for some end: mere loss of profit.—n. Sacrif′icant, one who offers a sacrifice.—adj. Sacrif′icātory, offering sacrifice.—n. Sac′rificer, a priest.—adj. Sacrifi′cial, relating to, or consisting in, sacrifice: performing sacrifice.—adv. Sacrifi′cially.—Sacrifice hit, in base-ball, a hit to enable another player to score or to gain a base.—Eucharistic sacrifice, the supposed constant renewal of the sacrifice of Christ in the mass. [O. Fr.,—L. sacrificium—sacer, sacred, facĕre, to make.]