butcher

1 of 2

noun

butch·er ˈbu̇-chər

Synonyms of butcher next

: a person who slaughters animals or dresses their flesh

: a dealer in meat

: one that kills ruthlessly or brutally

: one that bungles or botches

: a vendor especially on trains or in theaters

butcher

2 of 2

verb

butchered; butchering ˈbu̇ch-riŋ

ˈbu̇-chə-

transitive verb

: to slaughter and dress for market

butcher hogs

: to kill in a barbarous manner

: botch

butchered the play

Example Sentences

Noun the newest intern on the campaign is a butcher when it comes to writing press releases Verb They've hired someone to butcher the hogs. Many innocent people were butchered under his regime. The band has butchered my favorite song.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Character details are being under the cloche, but suffice to say that most will end up on the butcher’s block. —

Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Mar. 2023 One winter, in the West Village, a blond woman in yoga pants tapped my shoulder in the checkout line at a posh butcher’s shop on Hudson Street, pointing at the jar of kimchi in my hand. —

Monica Kim, Vogue, 15 Feb. 2023 Then tie two more butcher’s knots in the center of each side. —

Morgan Hines, USA TODAY, 9 Feb. 2023 The ongoing source of contention in the show centers around the white marble countertop, which Dean insists must be swapped out for butcher’s block. —

Rachel Silva, ELLE Decor, 3 Nov. 2022 Jennifer Evans struggled to properly sharpen a butcher’s knife. —

Ben Kesling, WSJ, 8 Oct. 2022 The trend even went beyond non-meat related themes (charcuterie literally means pork-butcher’s shop in French) by taking the form of dessert boards, holiday candy boards, and even brunch boards. —

Katlyn Moncada, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 Sep. 2022 Then there’s the Slaughter House, with its horrific gallery of carcasses and butcher’s instruments of torture; and Mercy General Hospital, one of Dungeon of Doom’s most popular and largest attractions. —

Annie Alleman, Chicago Tribune, 12 Sep. 2022 His father’s butcher shop was looted and burned during riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. —

Sheree R. Curry, USA TODAY, 1 Mar. 2023

Verb

Neanderthals were able to kill and butcher giant elephants that could feed 100 people for a month, according to a February 1 study that analyzed ancient animal remains found at a dig site in Germany. —

Katie Hunt, CNN, 7 Feb. 2023 Ching’s charity promoted his efforts to rescue injured and neglected animals here and to free dogs and cats from slaughterhouses in Asia that butcher them for human food. —

Alene Tchekmedyian, Los Angeles Times, 30 Dec. 2020 Microscopic studies of those bones showed the distinctive marks of cutting, scraping and pounding produced when stone tools are employed to butcher an animal. —

Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Feb. 2023 Jacobs’ quail are just beginning to produce their tiny, brown-speckled eggs for sale, and geese will arrive at her farm in June, to be raised both for eggs, and to butcher for Christmas roasting. —

Lynne Sherwin, cleveland, 8 Apr. 2022 On the muddy shores of a lake in east-central Germany, Neanderthals gathered some 125,000 years ago to butcher massive elephants. —

Byandrew Curry, science.org, 1 Feb. 2023 As for the cows, there was a time not so long ago when an islander might round one up from the beach, take it home to graze and fatten up, then butcher it for meat. —

Longreads, 2 Nov. 2022 Another idea is to butcher the turkey and cook its parts separately. —

Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 17 Nov. 2022 Polar bears usually prey on seals, though a significant portion of the Southern Beaufort Sea population has come to depend on bowhead whale scraps left on beach sites after Iñupiat hunters butcher their harvests. —

Yereth Rosen, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Dec. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'butcher.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.