n.
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.
v.
- slaughter or cut up (an animal) for food.
▸kill (someone) brutally.
- ruin deliberately or through incompetence.
Phrase
- have
(or take)
a butcher's
Brit. informal have a look.
[butcher's from butcher's hook, rhyming sl. for a ‘look’.]
Derivative
- butchery n.
(pl. butcheries)
.
Etymology
ME: from an Anglo-Norman Fr. var. of OFr. bochier, from boc ‘he-goat’, prob. of the same ultimate origin as buck1.
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