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.
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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:
"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 there that I came to see the possibilities in a robust whole-animal butchery program and a more radical approach to sourcing ingredients.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2025
That butchery business was long ago; surely by now the sharks would be out of the habit of congregating here.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
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
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
He wants to exorcise the great butcheries of humanity.
From Time Magazine Archive
Driven from the city through the cruel butcheries of the tyrant, they took refuge in the provinces, especially Asia Minor, where they remained until the reign of Adrian and his successor, the tolerant Antoninus Pius.
From The Christ Of Paul Or, The Enigmas of Christianity by George Reber
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.
