butchery

[boo ch-uh-ree]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR butchery ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural butch·er·ies.

a slaughterhouse.

brutal or wanton slaughter of animals or humans; carnage.

the trade or business of a butcher.

the act of bungling or botching.

Nearby words

Origin of butchery

1300–50; Middle English bocherie < Anglo-French, Middle French boucherie. See butcher, -y³

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for butchery

He was the first diplomat on the scene to witness the butchery in Sabra and Shatila in September 1982.
30 Years After the Beirut Bombing We Have Learned Nothing|Christopher Dickey|October 23, 2013|DAILY BEAST
At best, he and other dictators will draw the lesson that they need to commit their butchery in other ways.
Obama Decision on Syria Good for U.S Democracy, but His Case Is Weak|Peter Beinart|September 3, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The Daily Beast: In the 1920s, Chaim Soutine riffed on Rembrandt's butchery.
Oil Paint, Dry-Aged and Beefy|Blake Gopnik|June 28, 2013|DAILY BEAST
None of which would pardon nor condone the butchery he is said to have unleashed.
Michael Ware on Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, Accused of Killing Afghan Civilians|Michael Ware|March 20, 2012|DAILY BEAST

The rebels did not get near enough to stick any of our boys with their bayonets, which had been fixed for that sort of butchery.
A Boy Trooper With Sheridan|Stanton P. Allen
It gathered to one vast circular battle, killing and killing rats upon rats in a frenzy of loathing that grew with the butchery.
The Cup of Fury|Rupert Hughes
But the marshal, impatient at the slowness of the butchery, ordered the men to desist and to fire the place.
The Huguenots in France|Samuel Smiles.
There was frightful disorder and butchery; twenty thousand killed, five thousand captured out of forty-four thousand engaged!
Battle Studies|Charles-Jean-Jacques-Joseph Ardant du Picq
It was expected that they would be set upon in the streets, and the butchery there begun would be introduced into the prisons.
The Countess of Charny|Alexandre Dumas (pere)

British Dictionary definitions for butchery

butchery

noun plural -eries

the business or work of a butcher

wanton and indiscriminate slaughter; carnage

a less common word for slaughterhouse

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

Word Origin and History for butchery

butchery

"the trade of a butcher," mid-15c., bocherie, from Old French bocherie (13c., Modern French boucherie), from bochier (see butcher (n.)).

butchery

noun, plural butch·er·ies.

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Nearby words

Origin of butchery

Examples from the Web for butchery

butchery

noun plural -eries

butchery