butcher
Americannoun
-
butchers
plural
-
a retail or wholesale dealer in meat.
-
a person who slaughters certain animals, or who dresses the flesh of animals, fish, or poultry, for food or market.
-
a person guilty of brutal or indiscriminate slaughter or murder.
-
a vendor who hawks newspapers, candy, beverages, etc., as on a train, at a stadium, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
butchers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
butchered,
past participle, past
-
butchering
present participle
-
to slaughter or dress (animals, fish, or poultry) for market.
-
to kill indiscriminately or brutally.
-
to bungle; botch.
to butcher a job.
noun
-
a retailer of meat
-
a person who slaughters or dresses meat for market
-
an indiscriminate or brutal murderer
-
a person who destroys, ruins, or bungles something
verb
-
to slaughter or dress (animals) for meat
-
to kill indiscriminately or brutally
-
to make a mess of; botch; ruin
Synonym Usage
See slaughter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
butchersimple
-
butcherssimple
-
have butcheredperfect
-
has butcheredperfect
-
am butcheringprogressive
-
are butcheringprogressive
-
is butcheringprogressive
-
have been butcheringperfect progressive
-
has been butcheringperfect progressive
Past
-
butcheredsimple
-
had butcheredperfect
-
was butcheringprogressive
-
were butcheringprogressive
-
had been butcheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of butcher
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 ( see -er 2)
Explanation
The person whose job it is to cut up and sell meat is called a butcher. Your grandmother might go to the butcher once a week to buy pork chops. A butcher is an expert at preparing cuts of meat and poultry in a butcher shop or the meat section of a supermarket. You can also call a person whose job is slaughtering farm animals a butcher. Because this is a fairly bloody, gory occupation, the word is also used to mean a cruel, ruthless murderer. And when you really mess something up, you can also be said to butcher it — like the way you butchered that poem when you tried to recite it from memory.
Vocabulary lists containing butcher
Name That Job: Occupational Last Names
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"Zlateh the Goat"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Selection Vocabulary 1, Unit 6
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As orders flood into the restaurant via online food delivery services and a walk-up window, a butcher slices through whole chickens while one cook flips thin slabs of steak and chicken on a grill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
More than a century later, Cornell apparently still has bears turning up on campus — though university officials would now prefer students not butcher them in the dorm kitchen.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
With nothing more than a smartphone, a lighting kit and a fridge full of fresh meat, halal butcher Manny Malik from Wolverhampton had around two hundred people tuning into his session.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
"Store closed", reads the sign next to Alina's butcher shop.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
How could you butcher them when their time was up, salt and batter them, fry them up for Sunday dinner?
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Leicestershire County Council announced the £131m road would be named in honour of the meaty treat, a speciality of the town's butchers, at a ceremony on Thursday.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
The government decided not to back a previous proposal for more businesses including butchers and fishmongers to open on the public holiday.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2025
Manchester Farms Quail – Quail can be surprisingly tough to track down, even at specialty butchers, but Manchester Farms makes this delicious little bird totally accessible for home cooks.
From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2025
We are burnt up by hard facts; like tradesmen we understand distinctions, and like butchers, necessities.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
Busy markets sold butchered meats and fast-wilting vegetables, horse carts clattered, children shouted, and men and women gossiped in coffeehouses and read from printed newspapers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
"I was so lucky, in the second-to-last frame I tried a plant and butchered it and fluked a ball. It was fate maybe," Higgins told BBC Sport.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
In 2024, Shasta County agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a 9-year-old girl and her family after sheriff’s deputies seized her goat so it could be butchered.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
The 1987 movie features Schwarzenegger’s Dutch leading a multiracial band of bros on a black ops mission to eliminate guerrillas in a Central American jungle, only to be butchered by an invisible stalker from space.
From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2025
“Mr. Porfirio Mondaba?” the lady said, and it sounded like she totally butchered his name.
From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya
Under updated housing rules, students are prohibited from “skinning, butchering, or otherwise processing wild game animals” inside residential buildings.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
The site also contained stone tools along with the remains of elephants and other animals, suggesting the area was once used for butchering prey near the edge of an ancient lake.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2026
He then breaks into song, trying his hand at the chant and butchering the delivery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Found in the Edgcote area in Northamptonshire, it has a sharp edge likely designed for butchering animals.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
Ash looked back at the carcass of the stag, and saw that the dogs were being held off now, and one of the men was approaching with his kit of knives to begin the butchering.
From "Ash" by Malinda Lo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
