Crossword clues for butcher
butcher
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Butcher \Butch"er\ (b[.u]ch"[~e]r), 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.]
One who slaughters animals, or dresses their flesh for market; one whose occupation it is to kill animals for food.
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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'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.]
To kill or slaughter (animals) for food, or for market; as, to butcher hogs.
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To murder, or kill, especially in an unusually bloody or barbarous manner.
--Macaulay.[Ithocles] was murdered, rather butchered.
--Ford. -
to bungle badly; to botch; -- used also when an object is damaged (literally or figuratively) in an activity; as, the new choir butchered the hymn.
Syn: mangle. [PJC]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1560s, from butcher (n.). Related: Butchered; butchering. Re-nouned 1640s as butcherer.
c.1300, from Anglo-French boucher, from Old French bochier "butcher, executioner" (12c., Modern French boucher), probably literally "slaughterer of goats," from bouc "male goat," from Frankish *bukk or some other Germanic source (see buck (n.1)) or Celtic *bukkos "he-goat." Figurative sense of "brutal murderer" is attested from 1520s. Butcher-knife attested from 18c. Related: Butcherly. Old English had flæscmangere "butcher" ('flesh-monger').
Wiktionary
n. 1 A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals). 2 (context by extension English) A brutal or indiscriminate killer. 3 (context Cockney rhyming slang from butcher's hook English) A look. 4 (context informal obsolete English) A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses, etc. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market. 2 (context transitive English) To kill brutally. 3 (context transitive English) To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation.
WordNet
v. kill (animals) usually for food consumption; "They slaughtered their only goat to survive the winter" [syn: slaughter]
Wikipedia
A butcher is a person who slaughters animals, dresses their flesh and sells their meat.
Butcher, The Butcher or Butchers may also refer to:
Butcher is a common family name in England but it may have French origins. The name first reached England following its conquest by the Normans in 1066. It was originally an occupational surname used to identify a person who worked as a Butcher. The name derived from the Old English word boucher or the Old French word bouchier. Residents of the French area of Boursières, or their descendants, may have also adopted the surname Butcher.
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or do any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets, slaughter house, or may be self-employed.
An ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock, butchers formed guilds in England as far back as 1272. Today, many jurisdictions offer trade certifications for butchers. Some areas expect a three-year apprenticeship followed by the option of becoming a master butcher.
Butcher (dates unknown) refers to an English cricketer who was one of the most outstanding professional bowlers of the late 18th century. No personal details have been traced and knowledge of him is limited to what is in match reports and scorecards.
Butcher played mostly for Surrey but it seems he was also engaged by MCC on its ground staff and he did play for MCC on a few occasions.
He made his known debut in the 1787 season when he played as a given man for Essex against Middlesex and took ten wickets in the match (these were his bowled victims only; the bowler was not credited with wickets falling to catches). His known total of wickets for the 1787 season was 24 and only the famous David Harris with 29 had more.
Butcher made 24 known appearances in major matches between 1787 and 1793.
Butcher (full name and dates of birth and death unknown) was an English cricketer.
Butcher made a single first-class appearance for pre-county club Hampshire in 1842, against an early England team.
Usage examples of "butcher".
El Arish, eavesdropping on surrounding communications, Israeli soldiers turned the town into a slaughterhouse, systematically butchering their prisoners.
Kuno looks now like a butcher or a bikie, but his voice is mellow and grand, fine as it ever was.
His nose led him to a panetteria where stevedores were already buying hot ciabatta, before going on to a stall where a butcher was selling liver and tripe ragout from a steaming pot, at a copper a dip of the loaf.
There was a cobbler at his elbow, and a wheelwright, and a butcher, and one or two other aspiring gentlefolk from the market fringe.
Ben grabbed one boy-about eight or nine comand turned him around-very carefully The boy had a butcher knife in one hand.
Had Coy not butchered one of the curtains and pinned the piece of lace to the front of her dress, Bethany might have been the object of bold hands, as well.
Their livestock was butchered, but the crofter and his family were saved the sword.
Gwyon had been butchered by disaffectionate Indians whose myth he had tried to replace with his own.
Galean soldiers, led by the Queen of Galea herself, hunted down the butchers of Ebinissia, and killed them to a man.
There were criticisms in it referring sometimes to dangerous ideas -- spoken even by a cardinal, in Holland or Belgium, he forgot which -- or written by a priest who had a Teutonic name which put Father Quixote in mind of Luther -- but he paid little attention to such criticisms, for it was very unlikely that he would have to defend the orthodoxy of the Church against the butcher, the baker, the garagist or even the restaurant keeper who was the most educated man in El Toboso except for the Mayor, and as the Mayor was believed by the bishop to be an atheist and a Communist, he could safely be ignored as far as the doctrine of the Church was concerned.
Dusty had been murdered, when she had lain helplessly and watched as Gleen butchered a terrified, equally helpless little boy.
The pork butcher is usually a very poor cook, but as he is cheap, poor people are willingly satisfied with him, and these resorts are considered very useful to the lower class.
Or, for that matter, who knows what Holk and his butchers will do, when they get the news.
Jefferson had come from him or from the three sailors butchered by Hsiao earlier.
He sent Butcher to show Dr Maturin the temperature at the surface, and ten and at fifty fathoms, together with the hygrometrical readings and a message to the effect that Captain Aubrey was obliged to stay on deck.