BUTCHER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Butcher

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/bˈʊtʃər/ Listen

noun

Butcher n.

1.

One who slaughters animals, or dresses their flesh for market; one whose occupation it is to kill animals for food.

2.

A slaughterer; one who kills in large numbers, or with unusual cruelty; one who causes needless loss of life, as in battle. "Butcher of an innocent child."

Butcher's meat, such flesh of animals slaughtered for food as is sold for that purpose by butchers, as beef, mutton, lamb, and pork.

verb

Butcher v. t. (past & past part. butchered; pres. part. butchering)

1.

To kill or slaughter (animals) for food, or for market; as, to butcher hogs.

2.

To murder, or kill, especially in an unusually bloody or barbarous manner. "(Ithocles) was murdered, rather butchered."

3.

To bungle badly; to botch; used also when an object is damaged (literally or figuratively) in an activity; as, the new choir butchered the hymn.

Synonyms: mangle.

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Etymology of 'Butcher'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Butcher" Quotes from Famous Books

... a door nail, Roger began to wring his hands, and wail; Calling himself, Beast, Butcher, cruel Turk! Thrice "Benedicite!" he mutter'd; Thrice, in the eloquence of grief he utter'd; "I've done a pretty ...

— Broad Grins • George Colman, the Younger

... generation later grew into the college taking its name from its chief benefactor, Elihu Yale, had its early days in the village at the mouth of the Connecticut river, named, after Lord Saye and Sele, Saybrook. The institution of learning called after the pious and erudite son of the English butcher of Southwark, founded on the banks of the river Charles near Boston, had come into existence more than sixty years before; but Yale followed less than forty years after the granting of the Connecticut charter. New England people never lost any time ...

— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne

... blood, then blood can be made to flow copiously. This was what Sulla did. Not only was the victim's life proscribed, but his property was proscribed also; and the man who busied himself in carrying out the great butcher's business assiduously, ardently, and unintermittingly, was rewarded by the property so obtained. Two talents[56] was to be the fee for mere assassination; but the man who knew how to carry on well the work of an ...

— Life of Cicero - Volume One • Anthony Trollope

... felt hat. One final stretch and he reached the hat, which he removed with a flourish and thrust into the red cavern of his mouth. As it appeared no more I suppose he ate it. This loss of his hat moved Hans to fury. Hurling horrible curses at Jana he drew his butcher's knife and ...

— The Ivory Child • H. Rider Haggard

... petals of the wild rose reminds him bitterly of the destined end of these joyous young lives—his white-fleeced little fellow-mortals. He sees the murdering butcher coming in his cart to demand the firstlings of the flock; he cannot suppress a cry of grief and indignation—he can only strive to shut out the ...

— Afoot in England • W.H. Hudson

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