butcherousadj.

1575 T. Twyne tr. H. Bullinger Trag. Tyrantes iv. f. 18^v Many princes do persecute the faithfull for none other cause, but that with their cruel butcherous Tragedies they might gratefie those Fathers of Rome.

1582 R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis ii. 28 Thee missing boucherus hatchet.

1620 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes 2nd Pt. Don Quixote lxviii. 460 Open not your eyes, ye murderous Polyphemans, ye Butcherous Lyons.

1660 S. Patrick Jewish Hypocrisie 313 John Basilides Duke of Muscovy..loved to be continually upon his knees and lifting up his hands to God when they were not employed in some butcherous and bloody action.

1739 R. Erskine Elegy Alexander Hamilton 21 Some thou hast ston'd by thy fierce butcherous hive.

1800 G. Wallace Prospects Hills in Fife (ed. 2) xix. 141 Those feeling breasts..Were mangled, ruthless, by his butcherous knife.

1891 W. C. Hudson Man with Thumb xix. 206 Would you from an hundred men, good and true, pick me out for a butcherous murderer?

1916 Bruno Chap Bks. Jan. 7 Butcherous War..Seizes his dagger with hell's own mad might, And slaughters helpless millions in the night.

1999 Freeman 49 60/1 The tyrannical and butcherous regimes that had come to represent the modern world of nation-state politics.