butcher

The definition of a butcher is someone who kills animals or cuts up the bodies of dead animals to be sold as meat.

(noun)

An example of a butcher is someone who slaughters sheep.

Butcher is defined as to kill animals or prepare dead animals for meat or to kill large numbers of people without feeling.

(verb)

An example of butcher is the killing of thousands of people in the Darfur genocide.

See butcher in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a person whose work is killing animals or dressing their carcasses for meat
a person who cuts up meat for sale
anyone who kills as if slaughtering animals
☆ Informal a person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theaters, trains, circuses, etc.

Origin: ME bocher < OFr bochier, bouchier, one who kills and sells he-goats < bouc, he-goat < Frank *bukk, akin to OE bucca: see buck

transitive verb

to kill or dress (animals) for meat
to kill (people, game, etc.) brutally, senselessly, or in large numbers; slaughter
to mess up; botch

Related Forms:

See butcher in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

a. One who slaughters and dresses animals for food or market.
b. One who sells meats.
One that kills brutally or indiscriminately.
A vendor, especially one on a train or in a theater.
One who bungles something.

transitive verb butch·ered, butch·er·ing, butch·ers