bloodbath

[ bluhd-bath, -bahth ]

/ ˈblʌdˌbæθ, -ˌbɑθ /

a ruthless slaughter of a great number of people; massacre.

Informal. a period of disastrous loss or reversal: A few mutual funds performed well in the general bloodbath of the stock market.

a widespread dismissal or purge, as of employees.

Origin of bloodbath

First recorded in 1865–70; blood + bath¹

Attention Democrats: Unless you start getting angry, the midterm elections are going to be a bloodbath.

Democrats, You Better Get Angry or You’ll Lose Congress |Dean Obeidallah |April 23, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Teen crime actually dropped dramatically during the years some social scientists were predicting a “bloodbath of violence.”

Breaking: Trend Stories Are Bullsh*t |Bonnie Bertram |April 8, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Indeed, his exit would be made easier if Alawites felt more assured that a bloodbath did not await them.

Face the Assad Reality In Syria |Frank G. Wisner, Leslie H. Gelb |January 26, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Who can say where the bloodbath, the spiraling destruction, the grim tornado that strews cadavers in its wake could end?

What To Do About Syria’s Crisis? |Bernard-Henri Lévy |December 10, 2012 |DAILY BEAST

So imagine an invasion, which cannot but evolve into a bloodbath like the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Playing With Fire |Bernard Avishai |November 19, 2012 |DAILY BEAST
Gustavus Vasa was a young fellow there, who dexterously escaped this Bloodbath, and afterwards came to something.

History Of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. III. (of XXI.) |Thomas Carlyle
In that case the bloodbath would take place there instead of in Africa.

Black Man's Burden |Dallas McCord Reynolds
Jake rumbled, "There's going to be a bloodbath there before it's over."

Black Man's Burden |Dallas McCord Reynolds
Shallow programming dominates as long as the bloodbath proceeds.

After the Rain |Sam Vaknin
But that it will be achieved through progressive taxation rather than through a bloodbath is not a foregone conclusion.

After the Rain |Sam Vaknin