Abbatoir

This is another name for a slaughterhouse. It comes from a French word for “to strike down.”

Why I Looked It Up

From Why We Drive:

In those segments of society that are more geared into institutions, more dependent on them for the certifications and gold stars that keep people moving through the abattoir funnels of the meritocracy, there is a program of empowering young women that we have gotten used to.

The “abbatoir funnels of the meritocracy” is – I think – referring to a cutthroat type of competition