butchern.
/ˈbʊtʃə/, U.S. /ˈbʊtʃər/ 1.
a. A person whose trade is the preparation and selling of meat. Also, esp. in early use: a person who deals with both the slaughter of livestock and the preparation of animal flesh for food.Preparation for sale typically involves dividing meat carcasses into joints and other cuts, separation of offal, and often the manufacture of raw meat products such as sausages. Poultry, game, or cured meat products are now often sold by butchers, although traditionally these might be prepared and sold separately by specialist traders.Although in earlier periods butchers often also slaughtered animals, when open-air slaughterhouses were increasingly regularized and removed from the centre of cities the term tended to become limited to a trader in meat which had been slaughtered elsewhere.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trader > traders or dealers in specific articles > [noun] > in food and drink > in specific foodstuffs
saltera1000
oilman1275
oysterman1305
pepperer1309
butchera1325
mealman1527
pepper mana1661
butter factor1696
porkman1749
flour-factor1815
macaroni dealer1854
society > trade and finance > selling > seller > sellers of specific things > [noun] > seller of provisions > seller of meat
butchera1325
tripe-seller1598
tripe-man1621
tripe-monger1621
turtler1740
porkman1749
rôtisseur1751
pork butcher1763
carcass-butcher1773
horse butcher1815
tripe-dresser1868
charcutier1894
meat-man1910
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparation of meat > [noun] > butchery > butcher
fleshmongerc1000
butchera1325
flesh-hewer1335
flesher1369
macegreffa1450
butcher man1481
kill-crow1593
pennyman1610
bovicide1678
pork butcher1763
carcass-butcher1773
butcheress1802
ox-feller1856
butchy1867
legger1876
charcutier1894
eviscerator1961
kill-cow-
a1325 Statutes of Realm (2011) x. 64 Icomplid fram þe time þat suuche bucchers ore appropriars weren iwoned to ben.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 285 A woman þat was quene of Fraunce by eritage wedded a bocher for his fairenesse.
c1400 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 2828 He hem to-hiwe..so þe bocher dooþ þe oxe.
c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 1167 The Barbor and the Bochier and the Smyth.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (BL Add. 9066) (1879) 370 The mayster sente for the buchere..for to sle the hogges.
1525 Old City Acct. Bk. in Archæol. Jrnl. (1886) 43 172 Itm payd to the Bochsar for a greyt serlyn xvjd.
1588 H. Oldcastle & J. Mellis Briefe Instr. Accompts sig. Bviij A butcher might sell you..all the felles, hides and tallowe.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 210 As the Butcher takes away the Calfe. View more context for this quotation
1687 Act for Establishing Rates Mar. in J. H. Trumbull Public Rec. Colony Connecticut (1859) III. 407 Butchers, bakers,..barbers, millers and masons, with all other manual persons and artists.
1727 J. Gay Fables I. ix. 3 Beneath a butcher train'd, Whose hands with cruelty are stain'd.
1794 T. Brown Gen. View Agric. Derby 20 In the pastures of Derbyshire the true bred heifer will be fat, and fit for the butcher.
1815 R. Rylance Epicure's Almanack 290 Here are several excellent butchers, poulterers, fishmongers, green-grocers, potatoe-men, and two or three good tripe-men.
1873 J. Morley Rousseau II. 44 The butcher pays himself in live cattle.
1904 Buffalo (N.Y.) Express 20 June 4 A butcher in Brussels made sausage of the carcass of a zoo elephant which had been killed.
1961 A. Hosain Sunlight on Broken Column i. iv. 41 The butchers by the swaying, naked carcasses, digging down with their fists, tearing apart the shaggy skins from the flesh.
2016 Bon Appétit Mar. 93/3 The bavette cut is a well-marbled piece from the end of the sirloin, prized for its flavor. Your butcher might know it as ‘flap steak’.
b. Originally and chiefly in the genitive. A shop where meat is sold. The genitive use is elliptical for butcher's shop n. 1.
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society > trade and finance > trading place > place where retail transactions made > [noun] > shop > shop selling provisions > meat or poultry
flesh housec1000
butcher's shop1533
poultry shop1560
butcher1588
tripery1611
tripe-shop1829
horse-butchery1892
charcuterie1958
1588 Proclam. Elizabeth I Rates & Prices Victuals 7 Aug. A stone best biefe at the butchers weighing viii. pound.
1695 W. Turner Hist. All Relig. World ii. 396 Sultan Amurat disguising himself, would go sometimes to a Baker's Shop and buy Bread; and sometimes to a Butcher's for Meat.
1736 London Evening-post 24 July At a Butcher's, the Corner of a Chimney broke off.
1778 London Mag. June 251/2 A weary traveller..must tend to..buy meat at the butcher's.
1817 W. Kitchiner Apicius Redivivus sig. I1 Break all the bones that have not been broken at the butcher's.
1844 Mrs. Flannigan Antigua & Antiguans I. 187 The poor creature..exhausted..with the discomfits of its voyage, had fallen down on its way to the butcher's.
1877 Connersville (Indiana) Examiner 28 Aug. At the butcher's they met the neighbor who had been the subject of their previous conversation.
1908 M. R. Rinehart Circular Staircase xxvii. 282 There was a rumor in the village, brought up by Liddy from the butcher's, that a wedding had already taken place.
1981 N.Y. Times 23 Sept. c6/3 Americans can buy it [sc. suet] at the butcher and shred it on a cheese grater.
2012 Sentinel (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 24 Mar. 30 I was behind a chap at the butcher's last Saturday buying some tripe.
2. † b. An executioner; a person who inflicts capital punishment or torture. Obsolete (rare or historical in later use).† c. Something that inflicts torture or punishment; a scourge. Obsolete.
a. A person who slaughters people indiscriminately or brutally.
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the world > life > death > killing > massacrer or slaughterer > [noun]
butcherc1450
massacrer1581
butcherer1592
pogromist1907
c1450 (c1350) Alexander & Dindimus (Bodl.) (1929) l. 750 (MED) But bochours ben þei [sc. your gods] echon, ȝour body to dismembre.
?1530 J. Rastell Pastyme of People sig. *Fiv Erle of worcester whiche for his crueltye was called the bocher of Englande.
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. F A mischiefe worse then..butcher sire, that reaues his sonne of life. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. ii. 260 To be butcher of an innocent childe. View more context for this quotation
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy Democritus to Rdr. 30 Bloody butchers,..common executioners of humane kinde.
1697 C. Gildon Rom. Brides Revenge iii. ii. 31 Why are your Bolts Spent upon Trees, Mountains, and idle Deserts, And never reach this Butcher of Mankind?
1720 J. Ozell et al. tr. R. A. de Vertot Hist. Revol. Rom. Republic II. ix. 158 The Murderer of Caius, the Butcher of three Thousand of his Fellow-Citizens.
1765 C. Jemmat Mem. (ed. 2) I. 8 Richard the Third, when he has conquered the scruples of Lady Anne, and persuaded her to marry the butcher of her husband, in the person of himself.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. v. iii. 297 With wild yell, with cries of ‘Cut the Butcher down!’
1878 H. M. Stanley Through Dark Continent II. iv. 119 The butcher of women and fusillader of children.
1914 Mother Earth July 165 Two hundred men, women, and children of the working class shot down or burned alive by the hired butchers of Standard Oil.
1966 Life 17 June 12/3 The healthy, 65-year-old Hirohito reigns on, still wrapped in mystery,..still variously regarded as the Butcher of Nanking or a kindly old marine biologist.
1993 New Republic 8 Mar. 7/1 We pay Bill Clinton to stand up to the Butcher of Baghdad, but Kaus frets that the president can't tell his wife to take a hike if he disagrees with her policy positions.
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society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [noun] > executioner
manquellera1275
officer?1387
smiterc1390
manslayera1425
man's quellerc1429
baserc1480
butcher1483
executora1513
slaughter-slave1556
carnifex1561
executioner1561
deathsman1589
verdugo1616
hals-mana1658
1483 W. Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende f. cxxjv/1 The bochyers toke combes of yron, and began to kembe hym on the sides within the flesshe.
a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) II. f. clxxii Whan ye Bysshop came vnto his place of Execucion he prayed the Bowcher to gyue to hym v. strokes in the worshyp of Cristes fyue woundes.
1570 R. Henryson tr. Æsop Morall Fabillis (Charteris) sig. E.ivv The Aip wes Boucher,..And hangit him.
1685 T. Phelps True Acct. Captivity 11 The King caused them to be brought before him, and with his own hands prov'd their Butcher, and Executioner.
1882 W. E. Griffis Corea: Hermit Nation iii. xl. 357 Four other women, formerly attendants in the palace,..were beheaded by the official butchers.
1910 D. de Leon tr. E. Sue Executioner's Knife iv. iv. 311 The sublime modesty of the virgin, who requests of her butchers as a supreme act of mercy that she be allowed a woman's shirt to go to death in because such a shirt was longer.
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the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > cause of mental anguish or torment > [noun]
roodOE
thornc1230
prickc1384
rack?a1425
travailerc1450
goading1548
twinge1548
goad1553
tormentor1553
cut1568
stingera1577
butcher1579
torture1612
bosom-devil1651
wound1844
knife-edge1876
nemesis1933
1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 474/1 Their conscience is their boucher [Fr. bourreau].
1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 591/2 They shal need no other butcher..but they shal haue as it were an hote yron always burning within themselues.
3. slang.
a. A doctor or surgeon, esp. one who is incompetent or too readily inclined to operate on patients.
ΚΠ
1759 J. Wesley Jrnl. 20 July (1829) 450/2 I wonder the butcher (Doctor, so called) to whom he was committed, did not murder him.
1850 H. Melville White-jacket lxiii. 308 Away, butcher! You disgrace the profession.
1869 Temple Bar Feb. 384 If these fellows will let me alone, and the butcher gives me good treatment, I'll be all right.
1929 M. Levin Reporter xiv. 396 She had to go to Dr. Stein. You know that butcher?
1976 ‘P. Atlee’ Last Domino Contract 171 I was in the Klamath Falls hospital and the butchers were trying to take my left foot off.
1995 C. E. Joffe Doctors of Conscience p. vii In contrast to the butchers who had medical degrees, these physicians of conscience were not incompetent medically.
2008 Sunday Mercury (Stoke-on-Trent) (Nexis) 7 Dec. 19 The scarred victim of a Midland breast surgeon accused of botching at least 12 operations and labelled a ‘butcher’ has slammed health bosses who refused to strike him off.
b. Originally U.S. A person who is reckless or incompetent in making cuts or alterations, typically in a work context.
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1867 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 265/2 ‘The one sitting at the table is commonly spoken of among us as The Butcher. The poems he drops into the basket are those rejected as of no account.’ ‘But does he not read the poems before he rejects them?’ ‘He tastes them.’
1902 S. Clapin Dict. Americanisms 88 Butcher, in newspaper jargon, a term applied to the copy-reader, who uses mercilessly the blue pencil in cutting short reporters' stories.
1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 37/2 Butcher, any crude or inept operator, as a barber, card player, etc.
1982 Boston Globe (Electronic ed.) 12 Dec. 1 Can Wade Boggs play third? Why not? He wasn't an absolute butcher there in his midseason stint.
2000 A. S. Dale Comedy is Man in Trouble 196 Wallis didn't know how to make fucking comedy. He was a butcher.
2009 Evening Post (Bristol) (Electronic ed.) 16 May 6 Some of my friends thought I was a complete butcher and the trees would never recover.
4. Angling. A kind of artificial fly used for salmon or trout. Cf. baker n. 4.
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the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fishing-tackle > means of attracting fish > [noun] > artificial fly > salmon flies
salmon fly1704
kingfisher?1758
tartan1837
goldfinch1845
parr-tail1847
baker1848
butcher1860
Jock Scott1866
claret1867
colonel1867
king1867
major1867
Shannon fly1867
wasp1867
chimney-sweep1872
Jack Scott1874
hornet1876
winesop black1876
mystery1880
1860 C. M. Yonge Hopes & Fears in Constit. Press Feb. 352 The doctor, the butcher, the duchess, and all her other radiant fabrications of..feathers.
1884 M. G. Watkins in Longman's Mag. June 177 What fly had been used..‘The Butcher?’ Yes; but he did not care much for that lure.
1917 Forest & Stream Sept. 410/1 I have seen a Butcher fished with in Ozark fast waters..for an entire week, and user of it excelled everybody in camp both in number and size of catch.
2004 B. Veverka Spey Flies & how to tie Them vii. 131/1 It [sc. the Ike Dean] was one of the first fancy flies and became very popular a few years before the advent of the Butcher.
5. U.S. colloquial. A person who sells refreshments, newspapers, or other items in a circus, theatre, train, etc. Now historical.Frequently with modifying word indicating the type of goods, or the place in which they are sold.Recorded earliest in candy butcher n. at candy n.2 Compounds 5.
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society > trade and finance > selling > seller > sellers of specific things > [noun] > seller of provisions > seller of sweets or fruit
butcher1867
1867 C. T. Norton Voice of Warning 10 I was what is by showmen termed a ‘candy butcher’.
1883 G. W. Peck Peck's Bad Boy 54 They never prayed in circus, 'cept the lemonade butchers.
1887 Indianapolis News 14 June 2/4 On a Michigan central train the other day..the ‘butcher’ came into the car with a basket of oranges.
1924 W. M. Raine Troubled Waters vii. 70 From the train butcher he bought a magazine and settled himself for a long ride.
2016 Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky) (Nexis) 21 Apr. He joined the John Robinson Circus as a candy butcher, selling peanuts and popcorn.
6. Australian slang. A glass or measure of beer.The size of the glass has varied over time, but it now typically measures 6 oz (170 ml). [There are various theories as to the origin of this usage: see, for example, quots. 1898 and 2017. Another (improbable) suggestion is that it reflects a mispronunciation of German Becher glass, cup.]
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the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > ale or beer > [noun] > specific quantity of
cue1603
cee1605
jug?1635
gun1674
ale kilderkin1704
swank1726
nip1736
pint1742
pt.1850
yard of ale1872
square1882
half1888
butcher1889
rabbit1895
rigger1911
sleever1936
tank1936
middy1941
tallboy1956
tube1969
tinnie1974
1889 W. R. Thomas In Early Days 14/2 Over a good fat ‘butcher’ of beer, he told me how he was getting on.
1891 Quiz (Adelaide) 16 Jan. 7/2 A butcher of beer, if you please, miss.
1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 73/1 Butcher, South Australian slang for a long drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a certain butchery in Adelaide used this refreshment regularly.
1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 10/3 A ‘butcher’..is identical in volume with the fourpenny glass of the other capitals.
1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. ix. 168 Butcher is Adelaide slang; in the early days it was used for a glass containing about two-thirds of a pint. In modern times the size has dropped to about half a pint.
1979 Advertiser (Adelaide) 6 Apr. 3/2 The price of 170-millilitre (butcher) and 425-millilitre (pint) glasses..would increase by 1 c.
2017 Advertiser (Austral.) (Nexis) 12 June 25 There were local preferences such as a butcher of beer, which was a small beer that perhaps a butcher might duck out for between chops in South Australia.
7. Textiles. [Short for butcher's blue adj. and n. at Compounds 2.] A dark blue colour resembling that of a butcher's apron. Now rare.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > blue or blueness > [noun] > dark blue
bicec1430
navy blue1780
marine blue1803
midnight blue1810
Adelaide1831
Oxford blue1842
butcher's blue1851
gros bleu1870
marine1871
gendarme blue1884
navy1884
butcher1892
matelot1927
1892 Isle of Wight Observer 4 June Also all plain shades, Pink, Mauve, Blue, Red, Old Rose, Butcher, Navy, &c.
1922 Daily Mail 13 Dec. 1 (advt.) Strong Cotton Dresses. In plain Butcher, Navy, Brown, [etc.].
1923 Daily Mail 30 May 4 (advt.) Mauve, Pink or Butcher on White ground.
1950 ‘P. Wentworth’ Brading Coll. xv. 94 Most of the time she wore blue... Navy, or butcher.
Phrases
the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker and variants: used to refer generally to people of various trades or businesses, considered collectively; (also in weakened use) anyone at all. [With allusion to the nursery rhyme cited in quot. 1797.]
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1797 J. Hook Christmas Box II. 5 Dub a dub dub, three Maids in a Tub..and who do you think was there, the Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker,..and..all of them gone to the fair.]
1853 Putnam's Monthly Nov. 491/2 Here you are, speaking very little French,..cheated by butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker.
1923 Daily Mail 22 Nov. 4/4 In the matter of good transport there is no possible requirement which has not been met—the butcher, the baker and candlestick maker will find vehicles for their purposes.
1966 N.Y. Times 1 Mar. 74/6 The butcher, the baker, and the supermarket owner all must obtain city Health Department permits.
2002 P. B. Raabe Issues in Philos. Counseling i. 8 The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker all have a way of influencing even the most abstract notions within the philosopher's supposedly solitary contemplations.
Compounds
C1. Compounds with butcher's (in sense 1a).
butcher's boy n. (also butchers boy) [boy n.1 1a]
ΚΠ
1583 tr. B. des Périers Mirrour of Mirth f. 12v A Companie of Oxen, yt a Butchers Boye did driue.
1740 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 194/2 Sports only fit for butchers boys.
2003 N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Mar. 63/1 Dodging Chinese butchers' boys in white coats with piglets slung over their shoulders.
butcher's cleaver n.
ΚΠ
1688 Pleasures Matrimony 105 He was forc'd to have his Head cleft with a Butchers Cleaver.
1787 European Mag. & London Rev. Sept. 200/1 The hacking and hewing of a butcher's cleaver.
1895 Opera Glass Apr. 55/2 A huge butcher's cleaver, the weapon a Chicago stock-yards man named Gorman used to split his wife's skull with.
2008 Backpacker June 25/2 That a tame porker with a future no brighter than the glint from a butcher's cleaver can go completely primal seems pretty inspiring in a weird way.
butcher's tray n. (also butchers tray)
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > meat-block, board, or table
meat-table1381
stock1488
butcher's block1577
butcher's tray1651
carving-board1675
meat-boarda1827
meat block1838
1651 in S. Hartlib Legacie 131 This Timber is uncomparable for all sorts of wooden vessels, especially Traies; Butchers-Traies cannot well be made without it, it being so exceeding light and tough.
1766 London Mag. July 376/1 A man for a wager, one day this month, crossed the Thames in a butcher's tray, using nothing but his hands.
1914 Register (Adelaide) 30 July 8/7 A piece of wood hollowed out after the fashion of a butcher's tray.
2017 Observer 21 May I think of kidneys as neatly arranged in anatomical models, or on a butcher's tray.
butcher's window n.
ΚΠ
1835 Morning Post 28 Dec. Upon one occasion all the joints in the butcher's window are set dancing..to the great amusement of the audience.
1922 K. Norris Lucretia Lombard xxvii. 247 The butcher's window was empty except for a sleeping great cat.
2017 Sc. Mail on Sunday 28 May 45 Doubts about her will multiply like bluebottles in a butcher's window on a summer's day.
C2. † butcher crow n. Obsolete an Australasian butcher-bird (butcherbird n. 2).† butcher's sleeves n. Obsolete coverings for the forearms from elbow to wrist, worn esp. by butchers as a protection against soiling the sleeves of their ordinary clothes.
butcher boots n. high boots without tops (see top n.1 17a(a)).Apparently a style of boot originally associated with butchers, but later used primarily in military and hunting contexts.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > footwear > shoe or boot > boot > [noun] > high or long > boots
stand-ups1590
Hessian1806
pipe1819
butcher boots1860
1860 G. J. Whyte-Melville Market Harborough v, in New Sporting Mag. Apr. 230 My friend sharing with me a strong prejudice against what have been termed ‘Butcher-boots’.
1886 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Mar. 414/1 A man in a round hat and butcher-boots is as out of place at a hunt as a man in a tweed suit at a ball.
1941 Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Jan. 45 Butcher boots are de luxe knee-boots used by officers.
2002 R. M. Brown Hotspur xxii. 170 Ray wore a hunt cap, black melton, fawn-colored breeches, and butcher boots. He was properly dressed for a junior.
ΚΠ
1872 Rev. List Vertebrated Animals Gardens Zool. Soc. (ed. 5) 165 Long-billed Butcher Crow.
1927 Times 21 May 9/7 Mr. Ezra has also given two examples of Sonnerat's jungle fowl from India and a rare black butcher crow from New Guinea.
butcher fly n. (a) (also butcher's fly) a fly that feeds on meat or flesh; a blowfly (now historical); (b) a kind of artificial fly used by anglers (cf. sense 4).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Cyclorrhapha > family Calliphoridae > member of
flesh-fly1388
butcher fly1633
blowfly1729
yellow-bottle1855
bush-fly1934
1633 T. James Strange Voy. 81 Butterflyes, Butchers-flyes, Horseflyes.
1821 New Monthly Mag. 1 568 The butcher-fly fastens by instinct..upon those parts only that are defective and disgusting.
1867 F. Francis Bk. Angling xi. 368 The Butcher Fly..is not the fly known elsewhere as ‘the butcher’.
1899 Glasgow Herald 4 Sept. 12/3 Mr A. C. M'Dougall..commenced fishing about Cavilstone strip..creeling eight trout with the red and teal and butcher flies within two hours.
1937 Aberdeen Jrnl. 12 July 4/5 Since first observing the trout four years ago Mr Abel has made repeated attempts to capture it. He has finally done so using a small Butcher fly.
butcher man n. a butcher.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparation of meat > [noun] > butchery > butcher
fleshmongerc1000
butchera1325
flesh-hewer1335
flesher1369
macegreffa1450
butcher man1481
kill-crow1593
pennyman1610
bovicide1678
pork butcher1763
carcass-butcher1773
butcheress1802
ox-feller1856
butchy1867
legger1876
charcutier1894
eviscerator1961
kill-cow-
1481 in J. P. Collier Househ. Bks. John Duke of Norfolk & Thomas Earl of Surrey (1844) 60 Item, to Watkyn, bocherman viij.d.
1799 J. Woodforde Diary 6 Apr. (1931) V. 184 My Butcher Man, Peter, brought our News for us.
1830 O. W. Holmes in Collegian May 180 It was the stalwart butcher man That knit his swarthy brow, And said the gentle Pig must die, And sealed it with a vow.
1935 Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men i. vii. 155 ‘What did Ole Massa say 'bout me today’? Mule told him, ‘Ah didn't hear him say a thing, but Ah saw him talkin' to de butcher man’. So de ox jumped up and said, ‘Ah'm well. Tell Ole Massa Ah'll be to work tomorrow’.
2005 N. Brooks My Name is Denise Forrester 1 The butcher man..wore this white apron splattered with red and dried-in bits of stuff.
butcher's apron n. (also butchers apron) a long apron of the type worn by a butcher (in later use often one of dark blue canvas with white vertical stripes).
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1779 Malefactor's Reg. II. 98 He cut the string of a butcher's apron, and ran away with his steel.
1828 P. S. Townsend Diary 13 Feb. in Jrnl. Hist. Med. (1951) 6 85 He kept on his hospital regimentals which I have before told you is a long white butchers apron.
1925 J. Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer i. ii. 25 Bud edged up next to a young man in a butcher's apron who had a baseball cap on backwards.
1974 J. B. Keane Lett. of Love-Hungry Farmer in Celebrated Lett. (1996) 187 I see a lady lately at the Bannabeen G.A.A. Social and she wearing what looked like a butcher's apron... I was told 'twas the latest make of a dress.
2013 S. Busby Commonplace Killing xiv. 105 The urn was tended by a large unshaven man who was wearing a striped butcher's apron over a singlet.
butcher's bill n. ironic the list of casualties in a battle or war; (also occasionally) the financial cost of a war.
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the world > life > death > [noun] > death roll > military
butcher's bill1829
casualty returns1846
casualty list1864
body count1962
1829 F. Marryat Naval Officer i. v. 141 Having delivered his ‘butcher's bill’, i.e. the list of killed and wounded.
1881 A. M. Sullivan in Macmillan's Mag. 44 343/1 There may be politicians who would prefer the anniversaries kept in the good old style, however heavy the ‘butcher's bill’.
1969 Times 21 Mar. 10 Churchill reproached Wavell for evacuating British Somaliland with so few casualties. Wavell rightly replied that a big butcher's bill was not necessarily evidence of good tactics.
2006 Foreign Affairs Mar. 14 The losers would have to pay the butcher's bill of combat and bear the oppressor's yoke in the aftermath.
butcher's blue adj. and n. (also butcher blue, butchers blue) Textiles (a) adj. of a dark blue colour resembling that of a butcher's apron; (b) n. this colour; clothing of this colour (cf. sense 7).
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > blue or blueness > [noun] > dark blue
bicec1430
navy blue1780
marine blue1803
midnight blue1810
Adelaide1831
Oxford blue1842
butcher's blue1851
gros bleu1870
marine1871
gendarme blue1884
navy1884
butcher1892
matelot1927
1851 Times 26 May 5/1 The butchers' blue is the uniform of a guild.
1864 New Sporting Mag. Dec. 395 Hessians again, butcher blue vest, and brown breeches.
1883 Daily News 17 May 6/1 Even Venus must have mislaid some of her charm if arrayed in ‘butcher's blue’ or ‘rotten orange’.
1923 R. Macaulay Told by Idiot iii. vi. 199 The girl in a short butcher-blue cotton frock.
1960 Times 18 Jan. 15/2 Dresses in linens, such as one in butcher blue.
1996 Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Apr. 17/3 He designed ‘butcher blue’ shirts and suits without lapels or turn-ups so as not to collect dust.
2010 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 28 Nov. (Seven Mag.) 5 If anyone has a truck..and would like to come, I am all set for the road to Burma in my butcher's blue.
butcher's dog n. (a) (frequently in form butcher dog) a kind of large dog or mastiff (now historical and rare); (b) colloquial a dog kept by a butcher, typified (in similative phrases) as particularly bad-tempered or aggressive, or (in later use) especially fit and healthy (now esp. in fit as a butcher's dog).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > dog > [noun] > unspecified types
butcher's doga1425
water-ruga1616
grindle-taila1625
rock1719
poligar dog1788
tiger-hound1880
poligar hound1907
a1425 Edward, Duke of York Master of Game (Digby) xv. 72 Gret bucher dogges, þe whiche bochers holdeth forto helpe hem to brynge her beestes þat þei bieth in þe contre.
c1450 Jacob's Well (1900) 262 (MED) A lytel hound, þat..berkyth more þan a gret bocherys dogge.
1576 A. Fleming tr. J. Caius Of Eng. Dogges 28 In latine Canis Laniarius in Englishe the Butchers Dogge.
1597 Returne fr. Parnassus Pt. 2. ii. v. 871 All kinde of dogges..Butchers dogs, Bloud-hounds, Dunghill dogges.
1670 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Prov. 208 As surly as a butchers dog.
1756 Philos. Trans. 1755 (Royal Soc.) 49 260 I procured six puppies, of the butcher-dog-kind.
1843 G. Soane Last Ball I. v. 156 Six of them..and one..looks as surly as a butcher's dog.
1846 Sporting Mag. Jan. 111 During your rambles..your ears are assailed by the barking of whole packs of nondescripts, from the gigantic butcher's dog to the contemptible demi-pug.
1867 J. R. Houlding Austral. Capers ix. 77 Ye'd betther [sic] look out, for she's as savage as a butcher's dog.
1902 Albury (New S. Wales) Banner 26 Dec. 25/4 He..winds up by rolling home at midnight as full of fight as a butcher's dog.
1915 Kiama (New S. Wales) Independent 19 May A South Coast boy writing home said the Australians in Egypt were fit and as full of fight as a ‘butcher's dog’.
1954 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 44 166/2 Valentin operated on a large butcher dog.
1968 Stage 28 Mar. 4/3 Brendan..registered a mental vow to do something about reducing his 17 stone... The nu-look Brendan scales 15 stone 7lb. ‘I'm fit as a butcher's dog,’ he boasts, and looks it.
2007 G. Hurley One Under iii. 52 Here he was, Jake Tarrant's favourite detective, fit as a butcher's dog.
butcher's grip n. a method of clasping hands with another person in which the fingers are interlocked.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > posture > position of specific body parts > [noun] > arm or hand > specific hands
yepsenc1325
hand-holding1651
clasp1832
butcher's grip1882
steeple1940
1882 Standard 26 Aug. 2/2 The men linking hands with the butcher's grip.
1920 Printer's Ink 1 Jan. 63/2 Those who read this article will doubtless remember that form of hand clasp, termed by children ‘butcher's grip’. It is formed by curling the fingers of each hand into the palms and then interlocking to form a tight yet flexible joint.
2010 W. Fowler Pegasus Bridge (Electronic ed.) Howard and the men linked arms and locked their fingers in what was called a ‘butcher's grip’ and brought their knees up off the floor of the glider.
butcher's knife n. (also butcher knife, butchers knife) a knife, esp. a large one, of a type used by butchers; (also) any large, strong-bladed knife.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > knife
dressing knife1362
trencher-knife1392
bread knife1432
kitchen knife1433
dresser knifea1450
carving-knifea1475
sticking knife1495
chipper1508
chipping knife1526
butcher's knife1557
striking knife1578
mincing knife1586
cook's knife1599
oyster knife1637
randing knife1725
stick knife1819
chopping-knife1837
carver1839
butch knife1845
fish-carver1855
fruit-knife1855
rimmer1876
throating knife1879
steak knife1895
paring knife1908
society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > knife > [noun] > large knife
panade1340
whittle1404
colknyfea1500
butcher's knife1557
gully1582
gully-knife1725
whittle-knife1736
cane knife1798
wood-knife1880
panga1929
1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes (new ed.) f. 90v The Lambe thinkes not the butchers knife, Should then bereue him of his life.
1580 C. Hollyband Treasurie French Tong Couperet, a butcher's knife, a cleauer.
1766 H. Brooke Fool of Quality ii. 591 Pulling out his butcher's knife from a sheath in his side-pocket, he..made a stab at my heart.
1822 Massachusetts Spy 25 Dec. Her foot slipt, and she fell upon a large butcher-knife which she had in her hand.
1842 N.Y. Mirror 4 June 181/1 The gun, the butcher's knife, and the slaughter-house, are unnecessities and sins.
1964 W. & J. Breedlove Swap Clubs xv. 233 Our grandmothers, wielding butcher knives, threatened to cut off our fathers' wee-wees if they didn't stop playing with them.
2014 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 27 Aug. Under a floorboard in a bedroom the police found several of the butchers' knives used by the gang.
butcher's paper n. (also butcher paper, butchers' paper) originally and chiefly North American a type of heavy paper, used originally for wrapping meat.
ΚΠ
1889 Decorator & Furnisher Apr. 11/1 A very pretty contrast was a room the walls of which were covered with the straw tinted butchers' paper, finished..with a frieze and dado of blue denim.
1901 Los Angeles Times 17 Sept. 11/3 The demand for coarse paper is not great... 100 tons of butcher paper supplies the demand.
1944 Rotarian Oct. 29/2 Greaseproof and moistureproof, butcher's paper now protects arms and food bound for war fronts.
1948 Life Dec. 40/1 At meetings the delegates' tables were covered with white butcher paper, which made a fine surface for doodles.
2013 T. Creed Redstone Station xxiii. 192 Jeremy outlined a long list of jobs that would need to be done before the big day. Alice wrote them all down on a sheet of butcher's paper.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for arms > [noun] > sleeve > types of > sleeves
sham1785
butcher's sleeves1827
1827 Casket 24 Nov. 332/1 He wears a butcher's apron and butcher's sleeves.
1856 Househ. Words 13 206/2 After a long delay the doctor came in, with scientific butcher's sleeves on his arms, and an apron tied round his portly waist.
1924 N.Y. Times 14 Oct. 4/1 They put him in a white coat, put butcher's sleeves on his arms and gave him a knife two feet long.
butcher work n. indiscriminate killing; (also) brutal or crude work; cf. sense 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [noun]
sleightc893
wal-slaught?a900
qualeeOE
deathOE
swordc1000
morthOE
slaughta1225
destroyingc1300
drepingc1300
martyrdomc1325
murderc1325
mortc1330
sleighterc1330
slaughter1338
iron and firea1387
murraina1387
manslaughtera1400
martyre?a1400
quella1425
occision?a1430
decease1513
destruction1526
slaughting1535
butchery?1536
butchering1572
massacrea1578
slaughterdom1592
slaughtering1597
carnage1600
massacring1600
slaughtery1604
internecion1610
decimationa1613
destroy1616
trucidation1623
stragea1632
sword-wrack1646
interemption1656
carnifice1657
panolethry1668
butcher work1808
bloodbath1814
populicide1824
man-slaughtering1851
battue1864
mass murder1917
genocide1944
overkill1957
1808 W. Scott Marmion ii. xxxii. 111 To tell The butcher-work that there befell.
1918 Jewelers' Circular 9 Jan. 109/2 It is not advisable to show or explain this method of repairing, for butcher work should be stamped out.
2015 E. Kovacs Russ. Bride xxxiv. 208 I want to hear constructive comments and potential solutions only is that clear? Save the butcher work for some other meeting.
Derivatives
ˈbutcherless adj.
ΚΠ
1885 E. Innes Chersonese II. viii. 176 Butcherless, bakerless, tailorless, cobblerless, doctorless, bookless, milkless, postless..jungle.
1931 Pop. Sci. Monthly May 32 (caption) In this new type butcherless butcher shop all meat is displayed packed in cartons.
1995 S. Ikram Choice Cuts v. 110 There were meat shops that were butcherless as the merchants purchased cuts of meat (perhaps from the temples) to sell to private buyers.
ˈbutcherlike adj. and adv.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [adjective]
butcherly1528
butcherlike1555
butchering1574
butcherous1575
massacring1585
slaughtering?1592
massacrous1593
butchery1626
carnificial1632
internecine1642
murdering1667
carnificine1681
genocidal1948
1555 T. Cottesford in tr. U. Zwingli Rekening & Confession Faith Ep. Ded. sig. *7 The tyrannicall slaughter and butcherlike murther of the saintes.
1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs ii. f. 15v There are that to their bloudy boordes our crushed bodies beare, And butcherlike (with greedy teeth) our rented corses teare.
1625 J. Hart Anat. Urines ii. xi. 127 By..his butcherlike boldnesse he cast many into..laskes.
1761 R. Cumberland Banishment of Cicero v. 91 Thou only tak'st a cool delight in blood..And, butcher-like, deface and carve the slain.
1852 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 71 231 A butcher-like assistant..creeps up, and pierces the spinal marrow.
1906 Craftsman Feb. 608 He balked at the task of dispatching, butcher-like, the elegant, soft-skinned, dreamy-eyed sea-puppies.
2014 Daily Mirror (Nexis) 30 Aug. 29 The mugger attacked her with ‘a butcherlike blade’.
ˈbutcher-wise adv.
ΚΠ
1558 T. Phaer tr. Virgil Seuen First Bks. Eneidos vi. sig. Q.ivv There..Priams son he sawe all boucherwise Bemanglid.
1837 Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal Oct. 897 The skeleton had unfortunately been ruined by an unskilful hand—the whole animal having been chopped up butcher-wise.
1917 Anat. Rec. 12 91 The skin and some of the superficial fascia had been reflected, butcher-wise.
2012 Enniscorthy (County Wexford) Guardian (Nexis) 13 Nov. We rear our own pigs, and then they are killed in Christy Byrnes in Camolin, and we do pretty much everything butcher-wise ourselves after that.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
butcherv.
/ˈbʊtʃə/, U.S. /ˈbʊtʃər/ 1.
a. transitive. To slaughter (esp. a person) in a brutal or bloody manner; to slaughter indiscriminately. Also (and in earliest use) with down. Occasionally with up.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > slaughter > [verb (transitive)]
to bathe in bloodc1300
murderc1325
to make larder ofa1330
spend1481
to lick upa1500
slaught1535
butcher1562
wipe1577
slaughter1586
massacre1588
dispeople1596
shamble1601
depeople?1611
mow1615
internecate1623
dislaughter1661
mop1899
pogrom1915
decimate1944
overkill1946
1562 Complaint of Churche sig. A5 You, as sheep, were butchard doun.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. ii. 67 Thou doest swallow vp this good Kings bloud, Which his hell-gouernd arme hath butchered . View more context for this quotation
1628 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 3) Democritus to Rdr. 31 So many myriades..were butchered vp, with sword, famine, warre.
1680 T. Otway Hist. Caius Marius v. 57 Matrons with Infants in their Arms are butcher'd.
1716 J. Addison Free-holder No. 10 60 A Couple of Moors, whom he had been butchering with his own Imperial Hands.
1791 J. Mackintosh Vindiciæ Gallicæ i. 20 The wretch, who..issues, with the utmost coolness and calmness, his orders to butcher the Protestants of his own kingdom.
1843 W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Mexico I. i. iv. 162 The young prince..saw his father butchered before his eyes.
1889 J. W. Wilbarger Indian Depredations in Texas 253 The Indians were..falling back to where the fight had commenced, some of them yelling round Clark, whom they butchered up.
1927 Amer. Mercury Nov. 380/1 They overthrew him [sc. Nicholas II] and butchered him, and presently they were wallowing in Bolshevism.
1965 F. O. Copley tr. Virgil Aeneid 262 There they were butchered down defending the gates or charging against the spears.
2011 New Yorker 3 Oct. 77/2 The Spanish..were systematically butchering the natives on two continents.
b. figurative.
(a) transitive. To ruin (something) intentionally or through incompetence; esp. to spoil (language, a creative work, etc.) by alteration or distortion of the content. Also: to damage or destroy (a person's reputation).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > cause or effect (harm) [verb (transitive)] > do harm or injury to > affect detrimentally
atterc885
hurtc1200
marc1225
appair1297
impair1297
spilla1300
emblemishc1384
endull1395
blemishc1430
depaira1460
depravea1533
deform1533
envenom1533
vitiate1534
quail1551
impeach1563
subvert1565
craze1573
taint1573
spoil1578
endamage1579
qualify1584
stain1584
crack1590
ravish1594
interess1598
invitiate1598
corrupt1602
venom1621
depauperate1623
detriment1623
flaw1623
embase1625
ungold1637
murder1644
refract1646
depress1647
addle1652
sweal1655
butcher1659
shade1813
mess1823
puckeroo1840
untone1861
blue1880
queer1884
dick1972
forgar-
1659 J. Rogers Διαπολιτεία 98 An unjust, unlawful License of Slandring and Butchering the Reputations of our honourable Patriots.
1663 J. Birkenhead Assembly-man 16 He Butcher's a Text, cut's it..into many dead Parts, breaking the Sense and Words all to pieces.
1753 J. Nelson Ess. Govt. Children 266 There are Men who would not game another out of his Money,..nor run him thro' the Body; yet shall, without Scruple, butcher his Reputation with Slander.
1763 C. Churchill Rosciad in Poems I. 28 Could authors butcher'd give an actor grace.
1850 E. P. Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) II. 60 The text is not butchered by misprinting.
1893 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 16 Apr. 4/5 It is a wonder that Planquette did not appear and expostulate vigorously about the way his beautiful music was butchered.
1935 Hansard Commons 30 Jan. 386 The Rural Housing Act was butchered by this Government and 38,000 houses which might have been built have not been built.
1997 Times 5 June 3/3 It's no exaggeration to say they butchered his personal, political and professional reputation.
2007 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 26 May (Weekend section) j6 The semi-literate prose is unfortunate, because when he is not butchering the English language, Black tells a good story.
(b) transitive. To subject (a person, creative work, etc.) to severe criticism; to disparage; to lambaste. Chiefly in passive.
ΚΠ
1827 T. Carlyle tr. J. A. Musæus in German Romance I. iii. 188 As a modern critic butchers the defenceless rabble..who venture with such courage in our days into the literary tilt-yard.
1912 Lincoln (Nebraska) Daily Star 3 Mar. (headline) Other offerings of the week are butchered by unsympathetic critics.
1990 Mirabella Sept. 68/2 I had a play on once... It was butchered by [theater critic] Frank Rich.
2018 @CorieApple 11 Feb. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Yass! Love that whole album!..I never understood why it was butchered by the press.
c. transitive. To mutilate or inflict serious harm upon (a person or part of the body), esp. by cutting. Frequently (and in earliest use) reflexive.
ΚΠ
1882 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 27 June She first butchered herself about the arms with a razor, and, this proving too slow, slit her throat.
1894 Boot & Shoe Recorder 12 Dec. 31/1 With but a dime in my pocket I must go without a cigar or run the risk of butchering myself with my safety razor!
1909 Machinists' Monthly Jrnl. Nov. 1105/2 The little girl..ought to piously return thanks to the good and kind corporation who had made such pleasure [sc. the possession of an artificial leg] possible for her by butchering her beneath their wheels.
1963 Life 17 May 120/3 Breen had to cut his own hair. ‘I butchered myself,’ he says. ‘They gave me a do-it-yourself barber kit. Right off I cut too deep on one side.’
1986 C. Itzin in S. Wilkinson Feminist Social Psychol. vii. 133 ‘Real’ women—women untainted by the ideology of patriarchy—would not have..their breasts, bellies and buttocks butchered.
2016 Daily Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 11 Sept. (Lifestyle section) 118 (headline) We have to stop butchering our girls with plastic surgery.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > cause of mental anguish or torment > cause anguish to or torment [verb (transitive)]
quelmeOE
eatc1000
martyrOE
fretc1175
woundc1175
to-fret?c1225
gnawc1230
to-traya1250
torment1297
renda1333
anguish1340
grindc1350
wringc1374
debreakc1384
ofpinec1390
rivea1400
urn1488
reboil1528
whip1530
cruciate1532
pinch1548
spur-galla1555
agonize1570
rack1576
cut1582
excruciate1590
scorchc1595
discruciate1596
butcher1597
split1597
torture1598
lacerate1600
harrow1603
hell1614
to eat upa1616
arrow1628
martyrize1652
percruciate1656
tear1666
crucify1702
flay1782
wrench1798
kill1800
to cut up1843
1597 T. Beard Theatre Gods Iudgements ii. l. 468 They are..bound and chained with fetters of their owne sinne, and very often turmoiled and butchered with their owne guiltie conscience.
3.
a. transitive. To slaughter (an animal) for food. Later usually: to cut up or divide (an animal, meat) in preparation for eating, esp. using the techniques employed by butchers; to cut (meat) off or from a carcass in this way.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparation of meat > dress animals for food [verb (transitive)] > butcher
undoc1400
fetter1587
butcher1609
butch1656
1609 [implied in: C. Cotton tr. J. Calvin Comm. Prophecie Isaiah (xxii. 13) 215/2 The Lord vpbraides them with the killing of oxen, and butchering of sheepe. (at butchering n. 2)].
1668 tr. J. Drexel Pleasant & Profitable Treat. Hell viii. 148 The croud of the damned..shall be like..sheep butcher'd in the shambles.
1675 T. Brooks Word in Season 128 in Paradice Opened Butchers think well of their work, and are glad when they have butchered the poor sheep.
1730 Wat Tyler & Jack Straw i. i. 6 Slice on a Bench shall reverendly sit, and he who butcher'd Oxen, butcher Men.
1822 J. Fowler Jrnl. 3 Mar. (1898) 121 The formor [sic] killed two Elk, and left the latter to butcher them.
1881 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Austral. Grazier's Guide (1994) II. vii. 153 He puts a bullet into the head of a big brindled six-year-old..who..is butchered neatly..and carefully weighed.
1918 Boys' Life Jan. 11/2 The next morning it took all four of us quite a while to pull that moose up on the shore where it could be butchered.
1960 Brandon (Manitoba) Sun 20 Dec. Once when a pig died he hung the carcass on a tree, butchered off what he wanted when he wanted it.
1991 News-Herald (Panama City, Florida) 14 Aug. e1/2 These ribs can be purchased raw (already butchered from the rib).
2003 Times 17 May (Weekend section) 13/1 Peter Gott, a wild boar farmer from Cumbria, will be demonstrating how to butcher a pig traditionally.
b. intransitive. To slaughter and cut up an animal for food; to divide and prepare the carcass of an animal.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparation of meat > prepare meat [verb (intransitive)] > do butchering
butch1846
butcher1865
rind1918
1865 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 454/1 Thinkin', Huldy, if it is n't about time to butcher: we butchered last year nigh upon the twentieth.
1896 McClure's Mag. Apr. 484/1 ‘Don't butcher next week. Friday is Christmas day.’..‘Well, we always butcher Christmas week, don't we?’
1918 Anthropol. Papers Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 25 93 One day they came to two men who were butchering buffalo. One of them told them to sit down and look on while they were butchering.
1989 R. Kenan Visitation of Spirits 6 Come the cold months of December and January folk would begin to butcher and salt and smoke and pickle.
2013 N.Y. Times Mag. 7 Apr. 36 When it wasn't their turn to butcher, they gossiped and texted friends photos of the dead pig.
Phrasal verbs
to butcher out † 1. transitive. To remove or obliterate (something) by cutting in a crude or brutal manner; to hack out. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1611 C. Tourneur Atheist's Trag. (new ed.) v. sig. L2v I'le butcher out the passage of his soule, That dares attempt to interrupt the blow.
1769 W. Harrod Patriot iv. ii. 60 I'll from their bloody sockets tear my eyes, And madly butcher out this human form.
1848 G. F. Ruxton Life in Far West in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 718/1 His nearest neighbour..expressed his opinion that the offending weapon would have to be ‘butchered’ out.
1894 W. F. Cooper Barby Coey's Philos. 57 Gashing their cheeks and butchering out part of the flesh, leaving ugly wounds which they nickname dimples.
1925 E. L. Sabin White Indian viii. 120 The doctor missioner in camp is to butcher out my arrer-head fust thing in the mornin'.
2. transitive. To cut up (meat, an animal) using the techniques employed by butchers. Also intransitive (of an animal): to be capable of being cut into joints, etc., by a butcher.
ΚΠ
1895 P. Schweitzer Compar. Tests Different Breeds Beef Cattle (Bull. Missouri Agric. Coll. Exper. Station No. 24) 83 Can it be still asserted that the Herefords, though butchering out better, are the more profitable than the others?
1935 E. Hemingway in Scribner's Mag. Aug. 81/3 While..Charo was butchering out the meat, a long, thin Masai with a spear came up.
1941 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 7 Apr. 10/2 Carcasses butchering out at 52% and over to be classified as first class.
1955 Cattleman May 90/2 A yearling heifer that died..and was being butchered out by the owner.
2004 W. Blevins Beauty for Ashes xix. 254 He watched the women butcher out tens of thousands of pounds of meat.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.a1325
v.1562- passed over
- passed pawn
- passed up
- passed-down
- passed-on
- passed-out
- passed-over
- passeddown
- passedon
- passedout
- passedover
- passeggiata
- passement
- passement lace
- passement silk
- passement-maker
- passement-weaver
- passemented
- passementerie
- passementeries
- passementing
- passementmaker
- passements
- passementweaver
- passemezzo