butcher
/ˈbʊt͡ʃɚ/ verb B2- To slaughter (animals) and prepare (meat) for market.
- To work as a butcher.
- To kill brutally.
- To ruin (something), often to the point of defamation. · The band at that bar really butchered "Hotel California".
- To mess up hopelessly; to botch; to distort beyond recognition. · I am bad at pronouncing names, so my apologies if I butcher any of your names.
He/she/it butchers · Past butchered · Past participle butchered · -ing form butchering
Verb forms
- Base form
- butcher
- He/she/it
- butchers
- Past
- butchered
- Past participle
- butchered
- -ing form
- butchering
From the library
She was going to the butcher’s, she told me, on purpose to order in some meat on Wednesday, and she has got three couple of ducks just fit to be killed.”
If you want my flesh, there is the butcher, who will kill me in an instant; but if you want my fleece and wool, there is the shearer, who will shear and not hurt me.”
Turning to the Kid, he said, “It is just what I deserve; for I, who am only a butcher, should not have turned piper to please you.”
The Wolf, being thus fearfully mauled, said, “I am rightly served, for why did I attempt the art of healing, when my father only taught me the trade of a butcher?”
Other matches
Learn butcher in real texts
With a free account, hover any word in the library for its meaning, hear it read aloud, save words for review timed to your memory, and see how much of each book you already know.