One who is harmed or killed by another, especially by someone committing a criminal or unlawful act, A living being sacrificed to a deity, or in the performance of a religious rite; usually, some beast slain in sacrifice_ but the sacrifice of human beings has been practised by many peoples with the object of appeasing the wrath or conciliating the favor of some deity, or in the ceremonies connected with the making of vows and covenants, A person or thing destroyed or sacrificed in the pursuit of an object, or in gratification of a passion