| 释义 |
▪ 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.
[1292Britton i. xxi. §11 De tannours, qi se fount tannours et bouchers qi vendent chars par peces.] a1300K. Alis. 2832 He is to-hewe..so the bocher doth the oxe. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) I. 285 A woman þat was quene of Fraunce by eritage wedded a bocher for his fairenesse. c1440Gesta Rom. (1879) 370 The mayster sente for the buchere..for to sle the hogges. 1525Old City Acc. Bk. in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII, Itm payd to the Bochsar for a greyt serlyn xvjd. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 210 As the Butcher takes away the Calfe. 1726Gay Fables i. ix, Beneath a butcher train'd, Whose hands with cruelty are stain'd. 1873Morley 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.
1529Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 282 Erle of Worcester whiche for his crueltye was called the bocher of Englande. 1592Shakes. 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. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. To Rdr. (1849) 31 Bloody butchers, wicked destroyers..common executioners of the human kind. 1720Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. II. ix. 158 The Murderer of Caius, the Butcher of three Thousand of his Fellow-Citizens. 1837Carlyle 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.
c1450Henryson Mor. Fab. 38 The Ape was boucher, and..hanged him. 1483Caxton 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. 1494Fabyan 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.
1579Tomson 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.]
1860C. M. Yonge Hopes & Fears I. ii. iv. 229 The doctor the butcher, the duchess, and all her other fabrications of..feathers. 1867F. Francis Angling x. (1880) 345 The Butcher..kills almost wherever there are salmon. 1884M. 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.
1882J. J. Jennings Theatrical & Circus Life 513 In the spring ye ‘candy-butcher’ shows confections old and tough. 1883G. W. Peck Peck's Bad Boy 54 They never prayed in circus, 'cept the lemonade butchers. a1889Detroit 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.]. 1924W. 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.
1922Daily Mail 13 Dec. 1 (Advt.), Strong Cotton Dresses. In plain Butcher, Navy, Brown, [etc.]. 1923Ibid. 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.
1898Morris 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. 1934Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 10/3 A ‘butcher’..is identical in volume with the fourpenny glass of the other capitals. 1945Baker 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.
1587Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 35 *Butcherlike to rippe her downe the raynes. 1625Hart Anat. Ur. ii. xi. 127 By..his butcherlike boldnesse he cast many into..laskes. 1687Settle Refl. Dryden 3 The Butcher-like discords that arose. 1852Blackw. Mag. LXXI. 231 A butcher-like assistant..creeps up, and pierces the spinal marrow.
1558Phaër æneid vi. Q iv b, There..Priams son he sawe all *boucherwise Bemanglid.
1808Scott Marm. ii. xxxii, To tell The *butcher-work that there befel.
1842Dickens Amer. Notes (1850) 110/2 Great unsightly stumps, like earthy *butchers'-blocks.
1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6345/2 A *Butcher's Hook with a little Notch upon the End of the flat Part.
1533More Answ. Poyson. Bk. Wks. (1557) 1059/1 As men bye bief, or moten out of the *bouchers shoppes. 1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. 1, Who fills the butchers' shops with large blue flies?
1859W. 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.
1909D. Levitt Woman & Car ii. 28 Indispensable to the motoriste..is the over-all. This should be made of *butcher blue or brown linen. 1923R. Macaulay Told by an Idiot iii. vi. 199 The girl in a short butcher-blue cotton frock. 1960Times 18 Jan. 15/2 Dresses in linens, such as one in butcher blue.
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Market Harb. v, My friend sharing with me a strong prejudice against what have been termed ‘*Butcher-boots’. 1886Eng. 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. 1897Badminton Mag. IV. 397 Men in cords and butcher boots, tweeds and gaiters. 1941Manch. Guardian Weekly 17 Jan. 45 Butcher boots are de luxe knee-boots used by officers.
1663T. James Voy. 81 Butterflyes, *Butchers-flyes, Horseflyes. 1821New Monthly Mag. I. 568 The butcher-fly fastens by instinct..upon those parts only that are defective and disgusting. 1867F. Francis Angling xi. (1880) 430 The Butcher Fly..is not the fly known elsewhere as ‘The Butcher’.
1481–90Howard Househ. Bks. 60 Item, to Watkyn, *bocherman iij li.
1881Sullivan 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’.
1883Daily News 17 May 6/1 Even Venus must have mislaid some of her charm if arrayed in ‘*butcher's blue’ or ‘rotten orange’.
1576Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs iv. in Arb. Garner III. 255 In Latin, Canis Laniarius, in English, the *Butcher Dog. 1597Return Parnass. Pt. 2. ii. v. 871 All kinde of dogges..Butchers dogs, Bloud-hounds, Dunghill dogges. 1755Phil. Trans. XLIX. 260, I procured six puppies, of the butcher-dog-kind.
1882Standard 26 Aug. 2/2 The men linking hands with the *butcher's grip.
1714Boston News-Let. 1–8 Mar. 2/2 *Butchers knives. 1766H. 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. 1822Massachusetts Spy 25 Dec. (Th.), Her foot slipt, and she fell upon a large butcher-knife which she had in her hand. 1878J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xviii. 294 We fell to with our..butcher-knives and dug several holes.
1856Househ. 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’.
1936J. Curtis Gilt Kid ii. 23 And while he's there he takes a butchers. 1960K. 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.)
1941Baker 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). 1943J. 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]. 1951D. 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.
1896Fort 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. 1901Los Angeles Times 17 Sept. 11/3 The demand for coarse paper is not great... 100 tons of butcher paper supplies the demand. 2003J. 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.
1562Compl. of Church (Collier) 8 You, as sheep, were butchard doun. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 67 Thou dost swallow vp this good Kings blood, Which his Hell-gouern'd arme hath butchered. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. 29 So many myriads..were butchered up with sword, famine, war. 1680Otway Caius Marius 57 Matrons with Infants in their Arms are butcher'd. 1716Addison Freeholder No. 10 (1751) 60 A couple of Moors, whom he had been butchering with his own Imperial Hands. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. cxli, He, their sire, Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday. 1850Prescott Mexico I. 138.
b. fig. To ‘murder’ a reputation, an author's language by blundering delivery, etc.
1647J. Berkenhead Assembly-Man (1662–3) 16 He Butcher's a Text. 1677in Maidment Sc. Pasquils (1868) 244 For pelf Butcher'd thy fame estate, and last thyself. 1761Churchill Rosciad Poems (1763) I. 28 Could authors butcher'd give an actor grace. 1827Carlyle Transl., Melechsala (1874) 113 As a modern critic butchers the defenceless rabble..who venture..into the literary tilt-yard. 1850Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) II. 60 The text is not butchered by misprinting.
2. To torment, inflict torture upon (cf. n. 2).
1642T. Taylor God's Judgem. i. i. lii. 410 Turmoyled and butchered with their owne guilty consciences.
3. Peculiarly used with out.
1611Tourneur Ath. Trag. v. ii. 151 I'll butcher out the passage of his soule That dares attempt to interrupt the blow. 1848G. 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.
1822J. Fowler Jrnl. (1898) 121 The former killed two Elk, and left the latter to butcher them. a1848G. 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. 1855Mayne 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.
1865Atlantic Monthly XV. 454 If it isn't about time to butcher: we butchered last year [etc.]. 1896Scribner's Mag. VI. 484/1 ‘Don't butcher next week. Friday is Christmas day.’..‘Well, we always butcher Christmas week, don't we?’ |