butcheries

Noun

butchery (countable and uncountable, plural butcheries)

1. The butchering of meat.
   • (coordinate in precise usage referring to animal carcasses)
2. A butcher's shop; a meat market.

   Synonyms:

   butcher shop, butcher's

3. The cruel, ruthless killings of humans, as if at a slaughterhouse.
   • The tyrannous and bloody act is done,—
     The most arch deed of piteous massacre
     That ever yet this land was guilty of.
     Dighton and Forrest, who I did suborn
     To do this piece of ruthless butcheryc. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

   Synonyms:

   slaughter, slaughtering

4. (rare) An abattoir.
   • 1899 On the third Friday Jimmie was dropped at the door of the school from the doctor's buggy. The other children, notably those who had already passed over the mountain of distress, looked at him with glee, seeing in him another lamb brought to butchery. — Stephen Crane, Making an Orator.

   Synonyms:

   slaughterhouse, slaughtery

5. A disastrous effort, an atrocious failure.
   • I often wondered how Walcott the director could stand listening to some of his marvelous words and phrases being subjected to verbal butchery as sometimes occurred when a player did not understand what he was speaking or reading.1993, Robert D. Hamner, Critical Perspectives on Derek Walcott, page 275
   1. Surgery that was botched or is asserted by the speaker to have been so.

See all 7 meanings of butchery