Crossword Genius

Service gets area of butchery (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

massacre

'butchery' is the definition.
(I know that butchery can be written as massacre)

'service gets area' is the wordplay.
'service' becomes 'mass' (church service).
'gets' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'area' becomes 'acre' (an acre is an area of land).
'mass'+'acre'='MASSACRE'

'of' acts as a link.

(Other definitions for massacre that I've seen before include "Heavily defeat" , "Inflict a heavy defeat" , "Large-scale indiscriminate killing" , "Widespread killing" , "Indiscriminate slaughter" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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