n. & v.
--n.
1. a a person whose trade is dealing in meat. b a person who slaughters animals for food.
2 a person who kills or has people killed indiscriminately or brutally.
--v.tr.
1. slaughter or cut up (an animal) for food.
2 kill (people) wantonly or cruelly.
3 ruin (esp. a job or a musical composition) through incompetence.
Phrases and idioms:
the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker people of all kinds or trades. butcher-bird a shrike of the genus Lanius, native to Australia and New Guinea, with a long hook-tipped bill for catching prey. butcher's rhymingsl. a look (short for butcher's hook). butcher's-broom a low spiny-leaved evergreen shrub, Ruscus aculeatus. butcher's meat slaughtered fresh meat excluding game, poultry, and bacon.
Derivatives:
butcherly adv.
Etymology: ME f. OF bo(u)chier f. boc BUCK(1)