butchery
Americannoun
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butcheries
plural
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a slaughterhouse.
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brutal or wanton slaughter of animals or humans; carnage.
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the trade or business of a butcher.
-
the act of bungling or botching.
noun
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the business or work of a butcher
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wanton and indiscriminate slaughter; carnage
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a less common word for slaughterhouse
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of butchery
1300–50; Middle English bocherie < Anglo-French, Middle French boucherie. See butcher, -y 3
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:
Only a small number of bones displayed butchery marks, suggesting that dogs were not commonly consumed as food.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
That film’s director, John Huston, joined Jimmy Stewart and fellow Directors Guild of America members, including George Lucas, in accusing Turner and other colorizers of cultural butchery.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
"The butchery trade is hard work," says the butchers' guild head, Joachim Lederer.
From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026
Kakuta's restaurant has its own butchery, supplying bear meat dishes to a nearby hotel.
From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025
Talk of butchery reduced Samwell Tarly to speech-lessness.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Bennett-Parker said she researched some of Mused’s 14 other butcheries, calling neighbors and even visiting Philadelphia.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2019
Horse-eating, or hippophagy, became popular in Europe in the 19th century, when famines caused several governments to license horse butcheries.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2011
He wants to exorcise the great butcheries of humanity.
From Time Magazine Archive
We hold back from the leap of despair that would let us see that human society always carries within it the capacity to commit such butcheries and think well of itself.
From Time Magazine Archive
What especially touched his imagination was the spectacle of imperial Rome as interpreted to him by French decadence: that lust for power and sensation, those incredible temples, palaces, feasts, revelries, blasphemies, butcheries.
From Contemporary American Novelists (1900-1920) by Carl Van Doren
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