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butcher - 6 dictionary results
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butch⋅er

  [booch-er]
Use butcher in a Sentence
–noun
1. a retail or wholesale dealer in meat.
2. a person who slaughters certain animals, or who dresses the flesh of animals, fish, or poultry, for food or market.
3. a person guilty of brutal or indiscriminate slaughter or murder.
4. a vendor who hawks newspapers, candy, beverages, etc., as on a train, at a stadium, etc.
–verb (used with object)
5. to slaughter or dress (animals, fish, or poultry) for market.
6. to kill indiscriminately or brutally.
7. to bungle; botch: to butcher a job.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME bocher < AF; OF bo(u)chier, equiv. to bo(u)c he-goat (< Gaulish *bucco-; cf. OIr boc, Welsh bwch; akin to buck 1 ) + -ier -ier 2 (see -er 2 )

Related forms:
butch⋅er⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
3. killer, cutthroat. 5, 6. See slaughter.
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butch

  [booch]
–noun
1. butch haircut.
2. Slang. a lesbian, esp. one notably masculine in manner or appearance.
–adjective
3. Slang.
a. (of a girl or woman) having traits of personality, dress, behavior, or appearance usually associated with males.
b. (of a male) decidedly or exaggeratedly masculine in manner or appearance.
Origin:
1940–45; appar. from the proper name
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To butcher
butch·er   (bŏŏch'ər)   
n.  
    1. One who slaughters and dresses animals for food or market.
    2. One who sells meats.
  2. One that kills brutally or indiscriminately.
  3. A vendor, especially one on a train or in a theater.
  4. One who bungles something.
tr.v.   butch·ered, butch·er·ing, butch·ers
  1. To slaughter or prepare (animals) for market.
  2. To kill brutally or indiscriminately.
  3. To botch; bungle: butcher a project; butchered the language.

[Middle English bucher, from Old French bouchier, from bouc, boc, he-goat, probably of Celtic origin.]
butch'er·er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Butcher

Butch"er\, n. [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.]

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." --Shak.

Butcher bird (Zo["o]l.), a species of shrike of the genus Lanius.

Note: 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 northern butcher bird, and L. Ludovicianus or loggerhead shrike. The name butcher bird is 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.

Butcher

Butch"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Butchered; p. pr. & vb. n. 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. --Macaulay.

[Ithocles] was murdered, rather butchered. --Ford.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : butcher
Spanish: carnicero,
German: der Fleischer, der Metzger,
Japanese: 肉屋
More Translations »

butcher 
c.1300, from Anglo-Norm. boucher, from O.Fr. bouchier "slaughterer of goats," from bouc "male goat," from Frank. *bukk (see buck). The verb is recorded from 1562. Figurative sense of "brutal murderer" is attested from 1529.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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