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Slaughter vs Butchery - What's the difference?

slaughter | butchery |

Butchery is a synonym of slaughter.



As nouns the difference between slaughter and butchery

is that slaughter is the killing of animals, generally for food; ritual slaughter (kosher and halal) while butchery is the cruel, ruthless killings of humans, as at a slaughterhouse.

As a verb slaughter

is to butcher animals, generally for food.

As a proper noun Slaughter

is {{surname|lang=en}.

slaughter

English

(wikipedia slaughter)

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(-)
  • (uncountable) The killing of animals, generally for food; ritual slaughter (kosher and halal).
  • A massacre; the killing of a large number of people.
  • * Milton
    • on war and mutual slaughter bent
  • A rout or decisive defeat.

    • Derived terms

    * kosher slaughter * lamb to the slaughter/like a lamb to the slaughter/come like a lamb to the slaughter * manslaughter * ritual slaughter * slaughterer * slaughterhouse * slaughterman * slaughterous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To butcher animals, generally for food
  • To massacre people in large numbers
  • To kill in a particularly brutal manner

    • Anagrams

    * English transitive verbs

    butchery

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) bocherie, from (etyl). See butcher for more.

    Noun

  • The cruel, ruthless killings of humans, as at a slaughterhouse.
  • * 1593 , Shakespeare, Richard III , .
    • ''The tyrannous and bloody act is done,—
    ''The most arch deed of piteous massacre
    ''That ever yet this land was guilty of.
    ''Dighton and Forrest, who I did suborn
    ''To do this piece of ruthless butchery
  • (rare) An abattoir, a slaughterhouse.
  • * 1899' ''On the third Friday Jimmie was dropped at the door of the school from the doctor's buggy. The other children, notably those who had already passed over the mountain of distress, looked at him with glee, seeing in him another lamb brought to '''butchery .'' — Stephen Crane, '' .
  • * 1901' ''There was good grass on the selection all the year. I’d picked up a small lot—about twenty head—of half-starved steers for next to nothing, and turned them on the run; they came on wonderfully, and my brother-in-law (Mary’s sister’s husband), who was running a '''butchery at Gulgong, gave me a good price for them.'' — Henry Lawson, '' .
  • The butchering of meat.
  • * This butchery begins in the first Japanese month. For this purpose they put the animal's head between two long poles, which are squeezed together by fifty or sixty people, both men and women. When the bear is dead they eat his flesh, keep the liver as a medicine'' — James Frazer, ''The Golden Bough , .
  • A disastrous effort, an atrocious failure.
    • This week’s impossible-to-pronounce word: Catania. Granted, it’s a little trickier than Palermo, but there was no excusing the verbal butchery that ensued. — blog.
  • A meat market

    • Etymology 2

    Noun

  • (slang) The stereotypical behaviors and accoutrements of being a butch lesbian.