A butcher at work.
- The definition of a butcher is someone who kills animals or cuts up the bodies of dead animals to be sold as meat.
An example of a butcher is someone who slaughters sheep.
- Butcher is defined as to kill animals or prepare dead animals for meat or to kill large numbers of people without feeling.
An example of butcher is the killing of thousands of people in the Darfur genocide.
- a person whose work is killing animals or dressing their carcasses for meat
- a person who cuts up meat for sale
- anyone who kills as if slaughtering animals
- ⌂ Informal a person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theaters, trains, circuses, etc.
Origin of butcherMiddle English bocher ; from Old French bochier, bouchier, one who kills and sells he-goats ; from bouc, he-goat ; from Frankish an unverified form bukk, akin to Old English bucca: see buck
- to kill or dress (animals) for meat
- to kill (people, game, etc.) brutally, senselessly, or in large numbers; slaughter
- to mess up; botch
- a. One who slaughters and dresses animals for food or market.b. One who sells meats.
- One that kills brutally or indiscriminately.
- A vendor, especially one on a train or in a theater.
- One who bungles something.
transitive verbbutch·ered, butch·er·ing, butch·ers
- To slaughter or prepare (animals) for market.
- To kill brutally or indiscriminately.
- To botch; bungle: butcher a project; butchered the language. See Synonyms at botch.
Origin of butcherMiddle English bucher, from Old French bouchier, from bouc, boc, he-goat, probably of Celtic origin.
(third-person singular simple present butchers, present participle butchering, simple past and past participle butchered)
- To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
- To kill brutally.
- To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation.
- The band at that bar really butchered "Hotel California".