to slaughter an animal, whether as an offering to a god or for a meal
At its core this word names the killing of an animal. In the ancient world that act sat on a line English no longer draws: butchering a beast for the table and offering one on an altar were often the very same event, and this one Greek verb covers both. What decides the shade is who the killing is for, not any difference in the act itself.
So the New Testament uses it for a pagan priest getting ready to sacrifice (Acts 14) and, just as naturally, for a father telling his servants to kill the fattened calf for a homecoming feast (Luke 15). A sharper Greek word, σφάζω, stresses the violent cutting of the throat and often carries a note of slaying or murder; this verb keeps the frame of a proper, purposeful slaughter, the kind that ends in either an altar or a table.
A third, fixed use names the killing of the Passover lamb, where the two ideas fuse: the lamb was both offered to God and eaten at the meal. Paul leans on exactly that when he writes that "Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7).