butcher
UK/ˈbʊt͡ʃə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈbɵt͡ʃə/
butcher noun: a person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals). Also the comparative form of butch.
Noun
butcher (plural butchers)
- A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).
- 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, chapter I, in 'The House Behind the Cedars
- A brutal or indiscriminate killer.
- Butcher of an innocent child.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Synonyms:
- mayhemist
- A look.
- A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses, etc.
- A king playing card.
Verb
butcher (third-person singular simple present butchers, present participle butchering, simple past and past participle butchered)
- To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
- To work as a butcher.
- He tells me he now earns three times as much as he did butchering.2008, Monte Dwyer, Red In The Centre: The Australian Bush Through Urban Eyes, Monyer Pty Ltd, page 121
- To kill brutally.
- To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation.
- The band at that bar really butchered "Hotel California".
- Synonyms:
- murder
- To mess up hopelessly; to botch; to distort beyond recognition.
- I am bad at pronouncing names, so my apologies if I butcher any of your names.
- Synonyms:
- debase, bastardize
Proper noun capitalized: Butcher
Butcher
- A surname originating as an occupation for a butcher.
Also used as
butcher is also the comparative form of butch.
butcher meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
butcher in Hindi
- person who prepares and sells meat
- चिक cik, चिकवा cikvā, क़साई qasāī, कसाई kasāī, बूचड़ būcaṛ, क़स्साब qassāb
- brutal or indiscriminate killer
- क़साई qasāī, कसाई kasāī
butcher in Marathi
- कसाई, कसाइ
butcher in Urdu
- person who prepares and sells meat
- قَصائی qasāī, قَصَّاب qassāb, بُوچَڑ būcaṛ
- brutal or indiscriminate killer
- قَصائی qasāī
butcher in Bengali
- person who prepares and sells meat
- কসাই kośai
More languagesFewer languages
- butcher in Telugu
- కసాయి kasāyi
- butcher in Malayalam
- ഇറച്ചിവെട്ടുകാരൻ iṟacciveṭṭukāraṉ, കശാപ്പുകാരൻ kaśāppukāraṉ
- butcher in Assamese
- কচাই kosai
- butcher in Nepali
- कसाई, कसाइ, कसाई गर्न
- butcher in Pashto
- قصاب qasāb
- butcher in Tagalog
- manlalapa, tagalapa, matador, mamamatay-tao
- butcher in Arabic
- جَزَّار jazzār, قَصَّاب qaṣṣāb, لَحَّام laḥḥām, جَزَر jazar
- butcher in Malay
- tukang daging
- butcher in Indonesian
- tukang daging, menjagal, jagal
- butcher in Thai
- คนขายเนื้อ kon-kǎai-nʉ́ʉa
- butcher in Vietnamese
- người hàng thịt
- butcher in Myanmar
- သားသတ်သမား sa:satsa.ma:
Examples of butcher in a sentence
- The butcher often bloodied his apron in the course of his work.
- I just can't comprehend how someone could be a butcher and vegetarian at the same time.
- Ask the butcher for a few pounds of fat for our greens.
Synonyms of butcher
Forms of butcher
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | butchers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | butchers |
| present participle | butchering |
| past participle | butchered |
| past | butchered |
Origin of butcher
From Middle English bocher, boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from Old French bouc (“goat”), from Medieval Latin buccus (“he-goat”), from Frankish *bukk, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz (“male goat, male deer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“buck, ram”). See also English buck.
From butch + -er.
Words formed from butcher
- Bibi the Butcher
- butcher bird
- butcherbird
- butcher block
- butcher blue
- butcher boy
- butcherdom
- butcherer
- butcheress
- butcher knife
- butcherless
- butcherlike
- butcherly
- butcherous
- butcher paper
- butcher's
- butcher's apron
- butcher's bill
- butcher's block
- butcher's broom
- butcher's hook
- butcher shop
- butchershop
- butcher's knife
- butcher's mourning
- butcher's paper
- butcher's steak
- butcher's stripes
- butcher's thumb
- butcher stripes
- butcher's wart
- fit as a butcher's dog
- horse butcher
- news butcher
- outbutcher
- Piccadilly butcher
- pig butcher
- pork butcher
- slink butcher
Phrases with butcher
Questions about butcher
- What does butcher mean?
- Butcher means a person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).
- What is butcher in Hindi?
- Butcher in Hindi is चिक (cik), चिकवा (cikvā), क़साई (qasāī). See Butcher meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is butcher?
- Butcher can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce butcher?
- Butcher is pronounced /ˈbʊt͡ʃə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of butcher?
- The plural of butcher is butchers.
Words near butcher in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: butcher (page history and authors); Butcher (page history and authors); butcher (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); butcher (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-butcher.ogg.
Cite this entry: “butcher.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/butcher. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.