butchery
Americannoun
-
a slaughterhouse.
-
brutal or wanton slaughter of animals or humans; carnage.
-
the trade or business of a butcher.
-
the act of bungling or botching.
noun
-
the business or work of a butcher
-
wanton and indiscriminate slaughter; carnage
-
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:
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
The butchery signal is clear as well:"At Namorotukunan, cutmarks link stone tools to meat eating, revealing a broadened diet that endured across changing landscapes," said Frances Forrest at Fairfield University.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2025
It was pleasant to think that men still sang, even in the midst of butchery and famine.
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
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
So, with sheeps' innards not exactly standard fare in the butcheries of Brazil, I packed two haggis in my luggage when returning from a Christmas vacation in Scotland, and began planning the big event.
From Time Magazine Archive
Walpole barely exaggerates the wholesale legal butcheries by which the streets of London were then disgraced.
From Trial of Mary Blandy by Roughead, William
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.
