butcher Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a retailer of meat
    meatman.
  2. noun a brutal indiscriminate murderer
  3. noun a person who slaughters or dresses meat for market
    slaughterer.
  4. noun someone who makes mistakes because of incompetence
    bumbler; sad sack; bungler; fumbler; blunderer; stumbler; botcher; fuckup.
  5. verb kill (animals) usually for food consumption
    slaughter.
    • They slaughtered their only goat to survive the winter
  6. adjective satellite used of men; markedly masculine in appearance or manner
    butch; macho.
  7. adjective satellite (of male or female homosexuals) characterized by stereotypically male traits or appearance
    butch.

WordNet

Butch"er noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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. ✍ 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.
Butch"er transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Butchered ; present participle & verbal noun Butchering
Definitions
  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 1913