butcher
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Butcher
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from bouc (“goat”), of Germanic origin. More at buck.
Pronunciation [edit]
- (UK) IPA: /ˈbʊtʃ.ə(ɹ)/, X-SAMPA: /"bUtS.@(r)/
- (US) IPA: /ˈbʊt͡ʃ.ɚ/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ʊtʃə(ɹ)
Noun [edit]
butcher (plural butchers)
- A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
- He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days...
- 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
- (by extension) A brutal or indiscriminate killer.
- Shakespeare
- Butcher of an innocent child.
- Shakespeare
- (Cockney rhyming slang, from butcher's hook) A look.
- (informal, obsolete) A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses, etc.
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
a person who prepares and sells meat
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a brutal or indiscriminate killer
Verb [edit]
butcher (third-person singular simple present butchers, present participle butchering, simple past and past participle butchered)
- (transitive) To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
- (transitive) To kill brutally.
- (transitive) To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation.
- The band at that bar really butchered "Hotel California".
Synonyms [edit]
- (slaughter (animals)): kill, slaughter
- (kill brutally): massacre, slay
- (ruin, often to the point of defamation): murder
Translations [edit]
To slaughter animals and prepare meat for market
to kill brutally
To ruin something
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Germanic languages
- English nouns
- Cockney rhyming slang
- English informal terms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- en:Meats
- en:Occupations