Hypertext Webster Gateway: "butchery"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Butchery \Butch"er*y\, n. [OE. bocherie shambles, fr. F.
boucherie. See {Butcher}, n.]
1. The business of a butcher. [Obs.]
2. Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual
barbarity; great or cruel slaughter. --Shak.
The perpetration of human butchery. --Prescott.
3. A slaughterhouse; the shambles; a place where blood is
shed. [Obs.]
Like as an ox is hanged in the butchery. --Fabyan.
Syn: Murder; slaughter; carnage. See {Massacre}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
butchery
n 1: a building where animals are butchered [syn: {abattoir}, {shambles},
{slaughterhouse}]
2: the business of a butcher [syn: {butchering}]
3: the savage and excessive killing of people [syn: {slaughter},
{carnage}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.