chambers_search-1

Search Chambers

Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.

Search results for 'butcher':

butch adj (butcher, butchest) slang said of a person: tough and strong-looking; aggressively masculine in manner or looks, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: 1940s: from a boy's nickname in the US.

butcher noun 1 a person or shop that sells meat. 2 someone whose job is slaughtering animals and preparing the carcasses for use as food. 3 a person who kills people needlessly and savagely, or takes pleasure in killing. verb (butchered, butchering) 1 to kill and prepare (an animal) for sale as food. 2 to kill (especially a large number of people or animals) cruelly or indiscriminately. 3 colloq to ruin or make a botch of something • The publisher butchered the preface I sent in.
ETYMOLOGY: 13c as bocher or boucher, from French bochier or bouchier a person who kills and sells he-goats, from boc a he-goat.