WordWeb Online

1. The business of a butcher
   - butchery

1. Kill (animals) usually for food consumption
   "They butchered their only goat to survive the winter";
   - slaughter
    
2. Make a mess of, destroy or ruin
   - botch, bodge [Brit], bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub [N. Amer], screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bobble [N. Amer], mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, balls up, cock up [Brit], goof up
    
3. Kill a large number of people indiscriminately
   "The Hutus butchered the Tutsis in Rwanda";
   - massacre, slaughter, mow down

Derived forms: butcherings

Type of: business, business enterprise, commercial enterprise, fail, go wrong, kill, miscarry

Encyclopedia: Butchering