■ noun a person whose trade is cutting up and selling meat in a shop.
↘a person who slaughters and cuts up animals for food.
↘a person who kills brutally.
■ verb
1》 slaughter or cut up (an animal) for food.
↘kill (someone) brutally.
2》 ruin deliberately or through incompetence.
Phrases
have (or take ) a ~'s Brit. informal have a look. [ ~'s from ~'s hook , rhyming sl. for a 'look'.]
Derivatives
~y noun ( plural ~ies ).
Origin
ME: from an Anglo-Norman Fr. var. of OFr. bochier , from boc 'he-goat', prob. of the same ultimate origin as buck 1 .