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View synonyms for butcher

butcher

[ booch-er ]

noun

  1. a retail or wholesale dealer in meat.
  2. a person who slaughters certain animals, or who dresses the flesh of animals, fish, or poultry, for food or market.
  3. a person guilty of brutal or indiscriminate slaughter or murder.

    Synonyms: cutthroat, killer

  4. a vendor who hawks newspapers, candy, beverages, etc., as on a train, at a stadium, etc.


verb (used with object)

  1. to slaughter or dress (animals, fish, or poultry) for market.
  2. to kill indiscriminately or brutally.
  3. to bungle; botch:

    to butcher a job.

butcher

/ ˈbʊtʃə /

noun

  1. a retailer of meat
  2. a person who slaughters or dresses meat for market
  3. an indiscriminate or brutal murderer
  4. a person who destroys, ruins, or bungles something
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


verb

  1. to slaughter or dress (animals) for meat
  2. to kill indiscriminately or brutally
  3. to make a mess of; botch; ruin
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Other Words From

  • butcher·er noun
  • un·butchered adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of butcher1

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English bocher, from Anglo-French; Old French bo(u)chier, equivalent to bo(u)c “he-goat” (from unattested Gaulish bucco-; compare Old Irish boc, Welsh bwch; akin to buck 1 ) + -ier -ier 2 ( -er 2 )
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Word History and Origins

Origin of butcher1

C13: from Old French bouchier , from bouc he-goat, probably of Celtic origin; see buck 1; compare Welsh bwch he-goat
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Synonym Study

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Example Sentences

Bill, full name William Poole, was a real life butcher, skilled with knives and raised in the art of street fighting.

They could fix things and grow things and work with animals and do medical things and butcher pigs and put up preserves.

His family ran a butcher shop in a part of town so tough that their specialty was broken leg of lamb.

It is sold by the pound, cut to order, and presented not on a plate but on a sheet of butcher paper.

One veteran tiger butcher, who was turned into the authorities, was reported to have killed more than ten tigers since 2007.

A was an Archer, who shot at a frog; B was a Butcher, and had a great dog.

A butcher's boy, running against a gentleman with his tray, made him exclaim, "The deuce take the tray!"

She's too old for beef, or the butcher would; and she makes out to get her livin' without botherin' nobody much.

For all his vaunted scorn of being a butcher at a price, now that he heard the price he seemed not half so scornful.

A butcher scalds a hog to make the hair come off more easily (Bell).

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butchbutcherbird