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 sb.1 he-goat. The literal sense is thus ‘dealer in goat’s flesh’; cf. It. beccaio butcher, f. becco he goat.]
1. 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. Shaks., 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. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 766. A mischiefe worse then … Butcher sire, that reaues his sonne of life. Ibid. (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. 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 ye 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 kind of artificial fly used by anglers for salmon. [Cf. BAKER 3.]
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.
4. General combinations: a. attrib. and similative (sense 1 b), as butcher-like adj. and adv., † -wise adv., -work. b. syntactical (genitival), as butcher’s-block, -boy, -cleaver, -hook, -shop, -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. Payson. Bk., Wks. (1557), 1059/1. As men bye bief, or moten out of the *bouchers shoppes.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., I. Who fills the butchers’ shops with large blue flies?
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands, 76. The wood of the Black Poplar is … much used by turners for all kinds of white wooden vessels, such as bowls, platters, *butchers’ trays, &c.
5. Special comb.: 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 color 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 BUTCHER-BIRD, -ROW, BUTCHER’S BROOM, -MEAT.
1663. T. James, Voyage, 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, trans. 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.
