• (British) IPA: /ˈbʊtʃ.ə(ɹ)/
• (America) IPA: /ˈbʊt͡ʃ.ɚ/

butcher (plural butchers)

1. A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).
2. (figurative) A brutal or indiscriminate killer.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     Butcher of an innocent child.

3. (Cockney rhyming slang, from butcher's hook) A look.
4. (informal, obsolete) A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses, etc.

• carnager
• flesher 1
• mayhemist
• slayer 2

• French: boucher, bouchère
• German: Fleischer, Metzger, Schlachter
• Italian: macellaio
• Portuguese: talhante (Portugal), açougueiro, açougueira (Brazil)
• Russian: мясни́к
• Spanish: carnicero, carnicera, oficial

• German: Schlächter
• Italian: macellaio, carnefice
• Portuguese: carniceiro
• Russian: мясни́к

butcher (butchers, present participle butchering; past and past participle butchered)

1. (transitive) To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.

   Synonyms: kill, slaughter

2. (transitive) To kill brutally.

   Synonyms: massacre, slay

3. (transitive) To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation.

   The band at that bar really butchered "Hotel California".

   Synonyms: murder

• French: abattre
• German: schlachten
• Italian: macellare
• Portuguese: abater, talhar, cortar
• Spanish: carnear, matar, destazar

• French: abattre
• German: niedermetzeln
• Italian: massacrare
• Portuguese: trucidar, massacrar
• Spanish: masacrar

• French: charcuter
• Italian: rovinare, danneggiare

1. comparative form of butch

1. Surname for a butcher.