Definition of Butcher

1. Verb. Kill (animals) usually for food consumption. "They want to Butcher the prisoners "; "They slaughtered their only goat to survive the winter"

Exact synonyms: Slaughter
Specialized synonyms: Chine
Generic synonyms: Kill
Entails: Cut
Derivative terms: Butchery, Butchery, Butchery, Slaughter, Slaughterer

2. Noun. A retailer of meat.
Exact synonyms: Meatman
Generic synonyms: Merchandiser, Merchant
Specialized synonyms: Pork Butcher

3. Noun. A brutal indiscriminate murderer.
Generic synonyms: Liquidator, Manslayer, Murderer

4. Noun. A person who slaughters or dresses meat for market.
Exact synonyms: Slaughterer
Specialized synonyms: Knacker
Generic synonyms: Skilled Worker, Skilled Workman, Trained Worker
Derivative terms: Slaughter

5. Noun. Someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence.

Definition of Butcher

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

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

Definition of Butcher

1. Proper noun. (surname A=An occupational from=Middle English dot=) for a butcher. ¹

2. Noun. A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals). ¹

3. Noun. A brutal or indiscriminate killer. ¹

4. Noun. (Cockney rhyming slang, via ''butcher's hook'') A look. ¹

5. Noun. A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses , etc. (old, informal). ¹

6. Verb. (transitive) To slaughter animals and prepare meat for market. ¹

7. Verb. (transitive) To kill brutally. ¹

8. Verb. (transitive) To ruin something, often to the point of defamation. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Butcher

1. to slaughter [v -ED, -ING, -S] - See also: slaughter

Medical Definition of Butcher

1. 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." (Ford) Origin: Butchered; . Butchering. 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 bird, a species of shrike of the genus Lanius. The Lanius excubitor is the common butcher bird of Europe. In England, the bearded tit is sometimes called the lesser butcher bird. The American species are L.borealis, or northernbutcher bird, and L. Ludovicianus or loggerhead shrike. The name butcher birdis derived from its habit of suspending its prey impaled upon thorns, after killing it. Butcher's meat, such flesh of animals slaughtered for food as is sold for that purpose by butchers, as beef, mutton, lamb, and pork. Origin: OE. Bochere, bochier, OF. Bochier, F. Boucher, orig, slaughterer of buck goats, fr. OF. Boc, F. Bouc, a buck goat; of German or Celtic origin. See Buck the animal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Butcher

butanol-extractable iodine test
butanol dehydrogenase
butanolate
butanolide
butanols
butanone
butanones
butanoyl
butaperazine
butat
butaverine
butaxamine
butcher
butcher's
butcher's apron
butcher's broom
butcher's hook
butcher's hooks
butcher's knife
butcher bird
butcher block
butcher board
butcher knife
butcher paper
butcher shop
butcherbird
butcherbirds

Literary usage of Butcher

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Dictionary of National Biography by LESLIE. STEPHEN (1886)
"Butcher is known among topographers by his account of Sidmouth, ... 1813, 4to (intended as a sort of family Bible ; Butcher assisted Worthington and others ..."

2. The Friend of Peace by Noah Worcester, Massachusetts Peace Society (1827)
"Twenty thousand Turks perished on that day, and occasioned the Russian General to be surnamed The Butcher." Biographic Moderne—Article Suwarrow. ..."

3. Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, from by John Campbell Campbell (1847)
"In his own lifetime, he was called " the butcher's dog;" and Shakspeare, who must have ... Polydore Virgil speaks of his father as " a butcher;" and Fuller, ..."

4. English and Scottish Ballads edited by Francis James Child (1860)
"ROBIN HOOD AND THE Butcher. ... Upon a time it chanced so, 5 Bold Robin in forrest did 'spy A jolly butcher, with a bonny fine mare, With his flesh to the ..."

5. Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: A Dictionary, Historical and by John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley (1902)
"The penis ; and (2) a butcher's skewer (see quot. 1622, with a pun on both senses of the word). Hence PRICK- HOLDER (-PURSE, -SCOURER, ОГ -SKINNER) = the ..."

6. Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse by Anna Sewell (1904)
"THE Butcher I SAW a great deal of trouble amongst the horses in London, and much of it that might have been prevented by a little common w«s sense. ..."

Other Resources:

Search for Butcher on Dictionary.com!Search for Butcher on Thesaurus.com!Search for Butcher on Google!Search for Butcher on Wikipedia!