Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense butchers, present participle butchering, past tense, past participle butchered
1. countable noun
A butcher is a shopkeeper who cuts up and sells meat. Some butchers also kill animals for meat and make foods such as sausages and meat pies.
2. countable noun
A butcher or a butcher's is a shop where meat is sold.
3. verb
To butcher an animal means to kill it and cut it up for meat.
All his meat is butchered on site before being sold in the farm shop. [beVERB-ed]
4. countable noun
You can refer to someone as a butcher when they have killed a lot of people in a very cruel way, and you want to express your horror and disgust.
[disapproval]
...the Duke of Cumberland, infamous still as the butcher of Culloden. [+ of]
5. verb
You can say that someone has butchered people when they have killed a lot of people in a very cruel way, and you want toexpress your horror and disgust.
[disapproval]
Guards butchered 1,350 prisoners. [VERB noun]
Our people are being butchered in their homes.
Synonyms: kill, slaughter, massacre, destroy More Synonyms of butcher
More Synonyms of butcher
butcher in British English
(ˈbʊtʃə)
noun
1.
a retailer of meat
2.
a person who slaughters or dresses meat for market
3.
an indiscriminate or brutal murderer
4.
a person who destroys, ruins, or bungles something
verb(transitive)
5.
to slaughter or dress (animals) for meat
6.
to kill indiscriminately or brutally
7.
to make a mess of; botch; ruin
Word origin
C13: from Old French bouchier, from bouc he-goat, probably of Celtic origin; see buck1; compare Welsh bwch he-goat
butcher in American English
(ˈbʊtʃər)
noun
1.
a person whose work is killing animals or dressing their carcasses for meat
2.
a person who cuts up meat for sale
3.
anyone who kills as if slaughtering animals
4. US, Informal, Obsolete
a person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theaters, trains, circuses, etc.
verb transitive
5.
to kill or dress (animals) for meat
6.
to kill (people, game, etc.) brutally, senselessly, or in large numbers; slaughter
7.
to mess up; botch
Derived forms
butcherer (ˈbutcherer)
noun
butcherly (ˈbutcherly)
adjective
Word origin
ME bocher < OFr bochier, bouchier, one who kills and sells he-goats < bouc, he-goat < Frank *bukk, akin to OE bucca: see UNRESOLVED CROSS REF
Examples of 'butcher' in a sentence
butcher
My leg looked like butchered meat.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The kitchen also has a five-star hygiene rating and local butchers buy meat from there.
The Sun (2016)
This is a butcher's shop.
The Sun (2017)
The countryside, a place of healing where the two fugitive princes hide out, is grossly misrepresented by a butchered animal and a greenhouse full of dope.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
They also ensure that the meat is butchered and hung properly.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
The twins would also beg local farmers and butchers for animal heads.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
The town might have lost its butcher and baker.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
How many more innocents will be butchered by evil men who were freed from jail early?
The Sun (2006)
They are then either sold to dolphin trainers or killed and butchered.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
He currently looks like a butcher struggling to get his stock in from the van.
The Sun (2011)
Sage bursts on to the first page as he is chased by a butcher after stealing meat.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
And far less than the meagre payouts given to families of innocents butchered by merciless thugs like his son.
The Sun (2011)
What if the butcher's shop had closed?
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Because he's a butcher and says he always wears a pen behind his ear.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
And if we do, our butchers will make you some fresh on the spot.
The Sun (2011)
Small butchers' shops will omit the lungs.
Smith, Drew Food Watch (1994)
He said he'd have it killed and butchered for us.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
A probe found a potential link to cooked ham from small butchers.
The Sun (2013)
In their most recent match against northern hemisphere opposition they were taken to the cleaners, bakers and butchers.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Initial investigations have found a potential common link to cooked ham from small independent butchers, though tests on products have been negative.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Yes, 3,000 people had been butchered.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
That way they know precisely what size vegetables we are looking for, for example, or how we want our meat butchered.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
In other languages
butcher
British English: butcher /ˈbʊtʃə/ NOUN
person A butcher is a shopkeeper who sells meat.
American English: butcher
Arabic: جَزّار
Brazilian Portuguese: açougueiro
Chinese: 屠夫
Croatian: mesar
Czech: řezník
Danish: slagter
Dutch: slager
European Spanish: carnicero
Finnish: teurastaja
French: boucher
German: Metzger
Greek: χασάπης
Italian: macellaio
Japanese: 肉屋
Korean: 정육점 주인
Norwegian: slakter
Polish: rzeźnik
European Portuguese: talhante
Romanian: măcelar
Russian: мясник
Latin American Spanish: carnicero
Swedish: slaktare
Thai: คนขายเนื้อ
Turkish: kasap
Ukrainian: м'ясник
Vietnamese: người bán thịt
British English: butcher /ˈbʊtʃəz/ NOUN
shop A butcher or a butcher's is a shop where meat is sold.
American English: butcher shop
Arabic: مَحَلّ الـجِزارَة
Brazilian Portuguese: açougue
Chinese: 肉店
Croatian: mesnica
Czech: řeznictví
Danish: slagterforretning
Dutch: slagerij
European Spanish: carnicería
Finnish: lihakauppa
French: boucherie
German: Metzger
Greek: χασάπικο
Italian: macelleria
Japanese: 肉屋
Korean: 정육점
Norwegian: slakterbutikk
Polish: rzeźnia
European Portuguese: talho
Romanian: măcelărie
Russian: мясной магазин
Latin American Spanish: carnicería
Swedish: slakteriaffär
Thai: ร้านขายเนื้อ
Turkish: kasap dükkanı
Ukrainian: м'ясний магазин
Vietnamese: cửa hàng thịt
British English: butcher VERB
To butcher an animal means to kill it and cut it up for meat.
The chickens were butchered.
American English: butcher
Brazilian Portuguese: abater
Chinese: 宰杀
European Spanish: sacrificar
French: abattre
German: schlachten
Italian: macellare
Japanese: 食肉処理をする
Korean: 도살하다
European Portuguese: abater
Latin American Spanish: sacrificar
All related terms of 'butcher'
butch
If you describe a woman as butch , you mean that she behaves or dresses in a masculine way . This use could cause offence .
butcher's
a look
butcher block
designating or of a thick slab made by gluing together strips of hardwood , as maple or oak , used for counter and table tops, etc.
butcher paper
heavy , moisture-resistant paper, as used for wrapping meat
butcher shop
a shop in which meat , poultry , and sometimes fish are sold
pork butcher
a butcher who specializes in pork
family butcher
a butcher's shop that belongs to a family, and in which family members work
master butcher
a person who is fully qualified to work as a butcher and to train others in the trade
butcher's boy
a boy doing deliveries for a butcher and perhaps also learning the butchery trade, esp in the past
butcher's shop
a shop dedicated to the selling of meat
butcher's-broom
a liliaceous evergreen shrub, Ruscus aculeatus , that has stiff prickle-tipped flattened green stems, which resemble and function as true leaves. The plant was formerly used for making brooms