▪ I. butcher, n.
(ˈbʊtʃə(r))
Forms: [3 boucher], 3–6 bocher, 4–6 boucher, 4–7 bowcher, 5 bochere, -or, -our, -eyr, Sc. bowchour, (bochyer), 5–7 bucher(e, 6 Sc. boucheour, (boscher, bochsar), 6– butcher.
[ME. bocher, boucher, Anglo-Fr. form of OF. bochier, bouchier (mod.F. boucher) = Pr. bochier; f. OF., Pr. boc buck n.1 he-goat. The literal sense is thus ‘dealer in goat's flesh’; cf. It. beccaio butcher, f. becco he-goat.]
1. a. One whose trade is the slaughtering of large tame animals for food; one who kills such animals and sells their flesh; in mod. use it sometimes denotes a tradesman who merely deals in meat.
| [1292 Britton i. xxi. §11 De tannours, qi se fount tannours et bouchers qi vendent chars par peces.] a 1300 K. Alis. 2832 He is to-hewe..so the bocher doth the oxe. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) I. 285 A woman þat was quene of Fraunce by eritage wedded a bocher for his fairenesse. c 1440 Gesta Rom. (1879) 370 The mayster sente for the buchere..for to sle the hogges. 1525 Old City Acc. Bk. in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII, Itm payd to the Bochsar for a greyt serlyn xvjd. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 210 As the Butcher takes away the Calfe. 1726 Gay Fables i. ix, Beneath a butcher train'd, Whose hands with cruelty are stain'd. 1873 Morley Rousseau II. 44 The butcher pays himself in live cattle. Mod. To pay his butcher's bill. |
b. fig. One who slaughters men indiscriminately or brutally; a ‘man of blood’; a brutal murderer.
| 1529 Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 282 Erle of Worcester whiche for his crueltye was called the bocher of Englande. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 766 A mischiefe worse then..Butcher sire, that reaues his sonne of life. 1595 ― John iv. ii. 259 To be butcher of an innocent childe. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. To Rdr. (1849) 31 Bloody butchers, wicked destroyers..common executioners of the human kind. 1720 Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. II. ix. 158 The Murderer of Caius, the Butcher of three Thousand of his Fellow-Citizens. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1871) II. v. iii. 182 With wild yell, with cries of ‘Cut the Butcher down!’ |
† 2. a. An executioner; one who inflicts capital punishment or torture; also
attrib. Obs.| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 38 The Ape was boucher, and..hanged him. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 85/3 He..unclad hym and gaf hys clothys unto the bochyers. Ibid. 121/3 The bochyers toke combes of yron and began to kembe hym on the sides within the flesshe. 1494 Fabyan vii. (1811) 572 Whan y⊇ bysshop came vnto his place of execucion, he prayed the bowcher to gyue to hym v. strokes in the worshyp of Cristes fyue woundes. |
† b. fig. Obs.| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 474/1 Their conscience is their boucher. Ibid. 591/2 They shal need no other butcher..but they shal haue as it were an hote yron always burning within themselues. |
3. a. A kind of artificial fly used by anglers for salmon. [
Cf. baker 3.]
| 1860 C. M. Yonge Hopes & Fears I. ii. iv. 229 The doctor the butcher, the duchess, and all her other fabrications of..feathers. 1867 F. Francis Angling x. (1880) 345 The Butcher..kills almost wherever there are salmon. 1884 M. G. Watkins in Longm. Mag. June 177 What fly had been used..‘The Butcher’? Yes; but he did not care much for that lure. |
b. A vendor of sweets, fruit, etc., in a railway train, a theatre, etc.
U.S. colloq.| 1882 J. J. Jennings Theatrical & Circus Life 513 In the spring ye ‘candy-butcher’ shows confections old and tough. 1883 G. W. Peck Peck's Bad Boy 54 They never prayed in circus, 'cept the lemonade butchers. a 1889 Detroit Free Press (Barrère & Leland), On a Michigan central train the other day as the butcher came into the car with a basket of oranges [etc.]. 1924 W. M. Raine Troubled Waters vii. 70 From the train butcher he bought a magazine and settled himself for a long ride. |
c. Short for
butcher(
's)
blue.
| 1922 Daily Mail 13 Dec. 1 (Advt.), Strong Cotton Dresses. In plain Butcher, Navy, Brown, [etc.]. 1923 Ibid. 30 May 4 (Advt.), Mauve, Pink or Butcher on White ground. 1952 ‘P. Wentworth’ Brading Coll. xv. 93 Most of the time she wore blue... Navy, or butcher. |
d. A glass or measure of beer (see
quots.).
Austral. slang.| 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 73/1 Butcher, South Australian slang for a long drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a certain butchery in Adelaide used this refreshment regularly. 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 10/3 A ‘butcher’..is identical in volume with the fourpenny glass of the other capitals. 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. ix. 168 Butcher is Adelaide slang; in the early days it was used for a glass containing about two-thirds of a pint. In modern times the size has dropped to about half a pint. |
4. General combinations:
a. attrib. and similative (sense 1 b), as
butcher-like adj. and
adv.,
† butcher-wise adv.,
butcher-work.
b. syntactical (genitival), as
butcher's-block,
butcher-boy,
butcher-cleaver,
butcher-hook,
butcher-shop,
butcher-tray.
| 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 35 *Butcherlike to rippe her downe the raynes. 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. ii. xi. 127 By..his butcherlike boldnesse he cast many into..laskes. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 3 The Butcher-like discords that arose. 1852 Blackw. Mag. LXXI. 231 A butcher-like assistant..creeps up, and pierces the spinal marrow. |
| 1558 Phaër æneid vi. Q iv b, There..Priams son he sawe all *boucherwise Bemanglid. |
| 1808 Scott Marm. ii. xxxii, To tell The *butcher-work that there befel. |
| 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 110/2 Great unsightly stumps, like earthy *butchers'-blocks. |
| 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6345/2 A *Butcher's Hook with a little Notch upon the End of the flat Part. |
| 1533 More Answ. Poyson. Bk. Wks. (1557) 1059/1 As men bye bief, or moten out of the *bouchers shoppes. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. 1, Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies? |
| 1859 W. Coleman Woodlands (1862) 76 Wooden vessels, such as bowls, platters, *butchers' trays, etc. |
5. Special comb.:
butcher blue = butcher's blue;
butcher-boots pl., high boots without tops (see
top n.1 10);
butcher-crow, a crow-shrike (Funk's
Stand. Dict. 1893);
butcher-fly, ? a kind of blow-fly;
† butcherman, a butcher (
obs.);
butcher's bill, sometimes used sarcastically for the list of killed in a battle (less frequently for the money cost of a war);
butcher's blue, a dressmaker's name for a particular shade of dark blue like the colour of a butcher's apron;
butcher's or † butcher-dog,
app. formerly a breed of dog (
obs. in
spec. sense);
butcher's grip, a particular method of clasping the hands;
butcher's knife, also
butcher-knife, a particular kind of knife used by butchers; also, any large, strong-bladed knife of many uses;
butcher's sleeves, short sleeves covering the forearm from elbow to wrist, worn by butchers as a protection against soiling the sleeves of their ordinary clothes. Also
butcher-bird, -row,
butcher's broom, -meat.
| 1909 D. Levitt Woman & Car ii. 28 Indispensable to the motoriste..is the over-all. This should be made of *butcher blue or brown linen. 1923 R. Macaulay Told by an Idiot iii. vi. 199 The girl in a short butcher-blue cotton frock. 1960 Times 18 Jan. 15/2 Dresses in linens, such as one in butcher blue. |
| 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Market Harb. v, My friend sharing with me a strong prejudice against what have been termed ‘*Butcher-boots’. 1886 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Mar. 414/1 A man in a round hat and butcher-boots is as out of place at a hunt as a man in a tweed suit at a ball. 1897 Badminton Mag. IV. 397 Men in cords and butcher boots, tweeds and gaiters. 1941 Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Jan. 45 Butcher boots are de luxe knee-boots used by officers. |
| 1663 T. James Voy. 81 Butterflyes, *Butchers-flyes, Horseflyes. 1821 New Monthly Mag. I. 568 The butcher-fly fastens by instinct..upon those parts only that are defective and disgusting. 1867 F. Francis Angling xi. (1880) 430 The Butcher Fly..is not the fly known elsewhere as ‘The Butcher’. |
| 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. 60 Item, to Watkyn, *bocherman iij li. |
| 1881 Sullivan July Annivers. in Macm. Mag. XLIV. 343 There may be politicians who would prefer the anniversaries kept in the good old style, however heavy the ‘*butcher's bill’. |
| 1883 Daily News 17 May 6/1 Even Venus must have mislaid some of her charm if arrayed in ‘*butcher's blue’ or ‘rotten orange’. |
| 1576 Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs iv. in Arb. Garner III. 255 In Latin, Canis Laniarius, in English, the *Butcher Dog. 1597 Return Parnass. Pt. 2. ii. v. 871 All kinde of dogges..Butchers dogs, Bloud-hounds, Dunghill dogges. 1755 Phil. Trans. XLIX. 260, I procured six puppies, of the butcher-dog-kind. |
| 1882 Standard 26 Aug. 2/2 The men linking hands with the *butcher's grip. |
| 1714 Boston News-Let. 1–8 Mar. 2/2 *Butchers knives. 1766 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. ii. 591 Pulling out his butcher's knife from a sheath in his side-pocket, he..made a stab at my heart. 1822 Massachusetts Spy 25 Dec. (Th.), Her foot slipt, and she fell upon a large butcher-knife which she had in her hand. 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xviii. 294 We fell to with our..butcher-knives and dug several holes. |
| 1856 Househ. Words XIII. 206/2 After a long delay the doctor came in, with scientific *butcher's sleeves on his arms, and an apron tied round his portly waist. |
6. butcher's, short for
butcher's hook, rhyming slang for ‘look’.
| 1936 J. Curtis Gilt Kid ii. 23 And while he's there he takes a butchers. 1960 K. Amis Take Girl like You xxvii. 311 Have a butcher's at the News of the World. |
b. Austral. and
N.Z. Rhyming slang. (See
quots.)
| 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 16 To be butcher's, to be angry, annoyed (about something). Often ‘go butchers at’ (i.e., ‘go butcher's hook’ or crook). 1943 J. A. W. Bennett in Amer. Speech XVIII. 90 To go crook is to show anger or annoyance, to ‘sling off at’; and to go butcher's hook is presumably a development of this in rhyming slang [in New Zealand]. 1951 D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 126 As soon as Sadie came in I went butcher's hook. ‘What's this bloody nonsense about a studio, Sadie?’ I said, going straight to the point. |
▸
butcher paper n. (also
butcher's paper)
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer. a type of heavy paper, used originally for wrapping meat.
| 1896 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Gaz. 28 Mar. 3/5 Grease spots may be drawn out by covering the places with coarse brown or *butcher's paper and then passing over them with a warm flatiron. 1901 Los Angeles Times 17 Sept. 11/3 The demand for coarse paper is not great... 100 tons of butcher paper supplies the demand. 2003 J. Lethem Fortress of Solitude i. i. 17 The man on the ladder gathered excess with his blade and allowed it to drip heavily to the butcher paper on the parlor floor. |
▪ II. butcher, v. (
ˈbʊtʃə(r))
[f. prec. n.] 1. a. trans. To slaughter in the manner of a butcher, or in a brutal and indiscriminate manner.
| 1562 Compl. of Church (Collier) 8 You, as sheep, were butchard doun. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 67 Thou dost swallow vp this good Kings blood, Which his Hell-gouern'd arme hath butchered. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. 29 So many myriads..were butchered up with sword, famine, war. 1680 Otway Caius Marius 57 Matrons with Infants in their Arms are butcher'd. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 10 (1751) 60 A couple of Moors, whom he had been butchering with his own Imperial Hands. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxli, He, their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday. 1850 Prescott Mexico I. 138. |
b. fig. To ‘murder’ a reputation, an author's language by blundering delivery, etc.
| 1647 J. Berkenhead Assembly-Man (1662–3) 16 He Butcher's a Text. 1677 in Maidment Sc. Pasquils (1868) 244 For pelf Butcher'd thy fame estate, and last thyself. 1761 Churchill Rosciad Poems (1763) I. 28 Could authors butcher'd give an actor grace. 1827 Carlyle Transl., Melechsala (1874) 113 As a modern critic butchers the defenceless rabble..who venture..into the literary tilt-yard. 1850 Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) II. 60 The text is not butchered by misprinting. |
2. To torment, inflict torture upon (
cf. n. 2).
| 1642 T. Taylor God's Judgem. i. i. lii. 410 Turmoyled and butchered with their owne guilty consciences. |
3. Peculiarly used with
out.
| 1611 Tourneur Ath. Trag. v. ii. 151 I'll butcher out the passage of his soule That dares attempt to interrupt the blow. 1848 G. F. Ruxton in Blackw. Mag. LXIII. 718. |
4. To cut up or divide (an animal or flesh) after the manner of a butcher; to cut
off or
from in this fashion.
U.S.| 1822 J. Fowler Jrnl. (1898) 121 The former killed two Elk, and left the latter to butcher them. a 1848 G. F. Ruxton Life Far West (1849) iv. 118 The..body of one of the Indian squaws, with a large portion of the flesh butchered from it. Ibid. 160 Bill..called to him..to butcher off a piece of meat and put it in the pot. 1855 Mayne Reid Hunters' Feast xxxix, The fat cows only were ‘butchered’. The bulls were left where they had fallen, to become the food of wolves. |
5. intr. To do butchering.
U.S.| 1865 Atlantic Monthly XV. 454 If it isn't about time to butcher: we butchered last year [etc.]. 1896 Scribner's Mag. VI. 484/1 ‘Don't butcher next week. Friday is Christmas day.’..‘Well, we always butcher Christmas week, don't we?’ |