Sacrifice
Giving something up
Sacrifice involves giving up something valued for a purpose considered more important.
Religious sacrifice traditionally meant offering something—often an animal or food—to a deity.
The word extends to any costly surrender: She sacrificed her career for her family.
In baseball, a sacrifice is a play where a batter deliberately makes an out to advance a runner.
To sacrifice is to make such an offering or surrender, whether on an altar, a battlefield, or in everyday choices where one thing must be relinquished for another.
Transferring to another
- altruismPrioritizing others' wellbeing
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
- selflessnessPrioritizing others over oneself
- nobleTitled or virtuous
heroic · martyrdom · generosity · dedication · love · compassion · service · surrender
Sacred ritual table
- offeringSomething presented or given
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- templeSacred worship structure
- deityWorshipped supernatural being
priest · libation · incense · burnt offering · votive · atonement · propitiation · ceremonial
Required payment amount
- priceMonetary value assigned
- trade-offExchange requiring sacrifice
- forfeitLose through violation
- relinquishVoluntarily give up control
surrender · concession · compromise · hardship · deprivation · suffering · expense · toll
Risky opening for advantage
- pawnUnwitting tool of another
- exchangeMutual giving and receiving
- tacticPlanned action for advantage
- positionLocation or stance
attack · material · compensation · initiative · piece · strategic · calculated · bishop
giving
Transferring to another
- altruismPrioritizing others' wellbeing
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
- selflessnessPrioritizing others over oneself
noble · heroic · martyrdom · generosity · dedication · love · compassion · service · surrender · renunciation
altar
Sacred ritual table
deity · priest · libation · incense · burnt offering · votive · atonement · propitiation · ceremonial · blessing
cost
Required payment amount
relinquish · surrender · concession · compromise · hardship · deprivation · suffering · expense · toll · burden
gambit
Risky opening for advantage
position · attack · material · compensation · initiative · piece · strategic · calculated · bishop · knight
fallen
Having dropped down
battlefield · honor · courage · duty · patriot · hero · valor · casualty · war · combat
fly
Two-winged buzzing insect
advance · out · scoring · plate · base · infield · productive · squeeze play · batsman · tag up
Sacrificeselfishness
Excessive concern for oneself
greed · self-interest · hoarding · self-indulgence · acquisitiveness
Sacrificekeeping
Holding in custody
retention · preservation · saving · protecting · safeguarding
- sacrificial loveCaring through personal cost
- ultimate sacrificeDying for a cause
- sacrificial lambOne offered for others' benefit
- human sacrificeRitual offering of life
- heroic sacrificeDying to save others
- blood sacrificeRitual killing for deities
sacrificial, sacrificially, sacrificed, sacrificing, sacrifices