What is the meaning of sacrifice?

Some people attack the concept of Christ’s death being a sacrifice, since they define the word “sacrifice” to mean *giving something up that you will never get back*. (I suppose that is how I would define it as well.) Because the death of Christ resulted in only temporary loss and, in fact, ultimately greater glory, it cannot rightfully be called a sacrifice. I recently heard N.T. Wright briefly respond to this argument by saying that sacrifice doesn’t mean this in the Bible, and that this argument imposes a modern understanding of the word on the ancient texts of the Bible. However, he didn’t elaborate on what “sacrifice” means in the Bible. (Or, I didn’t understand what he said.) So my question is, if sacrifice doesn’t mean *giving something up that you will never get back*, what does it mean?