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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

butcher.

A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbʊt͡ʃə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɵt͡ʃə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbʊt͡ʃɚ/Canada, US/ˈbʉt͡ʃəɾ/Scotland

  1. A person who prepares and sells meat (and sometimes also slaughters the animals).

  2. A brutal or indiscriminate killer.

    figuratively

  3. A look.

    Cockney · slang

  4. A person who sells candy, drinks, etc. in theatres, trains, circuses, etc.

    informal · obsolete

  5. A king playing card.

    archaic · colloquial
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bocher, boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from Old French bouc (“goat”), from Medieval Latin buccus (“he-goat”), from Frankish *bukk, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz (“male goat, male deer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“buck, ram”). See also English buck.

verb/ˈbʊt͡ʃə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɵt͡ʃə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbʊt͡ʃɚ/Canada, US/ˈbʉt͡ʃəɾ/Scotland

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

    transitive

  2. To work as a butcher.

    intransitive

  3. To kill brutally.

    transitive

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

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

  5. To mess up hopelessly; to botch; to distort beyond recognition.

    transitive
    I am bad at pronouncing names, so my apologies if I butcher any of your names.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bocher, boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from Old French bouc (“goat”), from Medieval Latin buccus (“he-goat”), from Frankish *bukk, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz (“male goat, male deer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“buck, ram”). See also English buck.

adj/ˈbʊt͡ʃə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbɵt͡ʃə/British, Southern, Standard/ˈbʊt͡ʃɚ/Canada, US/ˈbʉt͡ʃəɾ/Scotland

  1. comparative form of butch: more butch

    comparative · form-of
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English butch Proto-Indo-European *-yōs Proto-Germanic *-izô Proto-West Germanic *-iʀō Proto-Germanic *-ōzô Proto-West Germanic *-ōʀō Old English -ra Middle English -ere English -er English butcher From butch + -er.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.