Verb

(sacrific)

To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.

To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility to gain something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.

* “Don’t you break my heart / ’Cause I sacrifice to make you happy.” - From the song Baby Don’t You Do It by Marvin Gaye

* “God sacrificed His only-begotten Son, so that all people might have eternal life.” (a paraphrase of John 3:16).

* Prior

Condemned to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.

* G. Eliot

The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum making this boy his heir.

To trade (a value of higher worth) for one of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more such as an ally or business relationship or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.

* (Ayn Rand), Atlas Shrugged

If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not a sacrifice ; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is.

(chess) To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board.

(baseball) To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be caught or fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.

To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.

To destroy; to kill.

(Johnson)

Verb

(en verb)

To keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}