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

verb

1. to slaughter or dress (animals) for meat
2. to kill indiscriminately or brutally
3. to make a mess of; botch; ruin

Other Words From

• butcher·er noun
• un·butchered adjective

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 )

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

Synonym Study

See slaughter.

Example Sentences

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• mutilate