1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. diij They are constrayned to croutche Before this butcherly sloutche As it were vnto an Emproure.

1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 644 A common homicide and butcherly murderer.

1642 J. Goodwin (title) Anti-Cavalierisme..for the suppressing of that butcherly brood of cavaliering incendiaries, who are now hammering England.

a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1683 (1955) IV. 332 Lord Russell was decapitated..the Executioner giving him 3 butcherly strokes.

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 154 The Man..came to be so butcherly and rude, as to shoot at our Men.

1799 J. Aikin et al. Gen. Biogr. I. 15/1 The caliph, with his own hands, and in a butcherly manner, killed Amru.

1819 R. Southey Select. from Lett. (1856) III. 537 The..consequence would be division, anarchy, and butcherly civil wars.

1866 G. F. Angas Polynesia 166 The Northern Islanders..from time to time made cruel and butcherly raids upon them.

1933 Illustr. London News 25 Feb. 250/3 Nearly all tragic, terrible, butcherly and bloody dramas, were domestic dramas.

1987 Washington Post (Nexis) 10 Aug. d1 Her mind is beset by awful anxieties about perils that can befall the innocent: the old wives' tales of wicked lovers, butcherly gynecologists, endangered children.

2013 Independent (Nexis) 29 Aug. 50 A refreshingly mud-splattered and butcherly telling of the tale [sc. Macbeth], all fetid hags and sorcerous music.

a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) i. f. 1^v Take wholly away this butcherlie feare in making of latines.

1689 2nd Pt. Coll. Poems Affairs of State 23 S— was at first a Man of the Blade, And with his Father follow'd the Butcherly Trade.

1752 B. Thornton Have at You All 23 Jan. 11 That other Old Woman of Clare-market, bellowing out with a butcherly elocution—‘Religion, right Reason—my own house, my castle [etc.].’

1844 Hood's Mag. 2 216 Away went Kezia..a yellow earthenware basin in one hand, and the naked carving-knife in the other; a combination, be it said, rather butcherly.

1875 ‘Outis’ Poems Humorous & Philos. (new ed.) i. 23 They [sc. cows] were not (allow me to say), In a legitimate butcherly way, Turn'd into viands wholesome and sound.

1917 M. Mortimer Green Tent in Flanders (1918) 219 The Parisian butcher..is a handsome man in a butcherly way—a heavy frame, kinky black hair, and a high colour.

2016 Evening Standard (Nexis) 24 Aug. 24 He gives me a bavette with some butcherly banter on the side, explaining the cut of meat in some detail.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Butcherliness, in a butcherly manner [1756 a butcherly manner].

1864 A. Russel Salmon 161 The antiquity of the practice [sc. spear-fishing], its picturesqueness, and, at the same time, its odiousness to..natures unhardened to its butcherliness.

1921 Eccles. Rev. Jan. 110/2 He has written a story of terror, one that recalls..the butcherliness of Ivan the Russian Nero.

1990 D. Cohen & D. Heller Jewish Presences in Eng. Lit. iv. 75 The vulgarity, greasiness, and butcherliness of Breghart [sic].

?1560 T. Norton Orations of Arsanes sig. N.iiij Men, women, children, all that euer were subiect to the reach of crueltie.., were butcherly murdered.

a1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhemists New Test. (1618) 421 Our brethren whose bloud you haue butcherly shed.

1678 N. Wanley Wonders Little World ii. xx. §5. 126/1 He found his Wife most butcherly mangled.

a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 646 He gave the hangman but half the reward..and said, if he cut off his head cleaverly, and not so butcherly as he did the Lord Russel's, his man would give him the rest.

1776 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772: Pt. 2 195 He..was taken out of his carriage, and, amidst the cries and entreaties of the lady, most cruelly and butcherly murdered.

1856 T. Agar Let. 9 Feb. in Florida Hist. Q. 42 99 The Indians came out of what they call the large Cypress swamp just at the break of day and butcherly murdered and scalped five of them.