means To give up something valued for the sake of something considered more important or worthy.

from From Latin sacrificium, a marriage of sacer 'sacred, holy' and facere 'to make' — literally 'to make sacred.' The original act was priestly: an offering surrendered to the gods, made holy by the giving up of it. The word came into English through Old French sacrifice, and over centuries its altar-smoke faded into the everyday sense of any cherished thing laid down for a greater cause. The 'sacred' is still buried right there in the spelling.