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ge numbers, or with unusual cruelty; one who causes needless loss of life, as in battle. "Butcher of an innocent child." Shak. Butcher bird (Zoöl.), a species of shrike of the genus Lanius.

A genus of plants (Ruscus); esp. R. aculeatus, which has large red berries and leaflike branches. See Cladophyll.

The business of a butcher.

Butchery quality.

Like a butcher; without compunction; savage; bloody; inhuman; fell. "The victim of a butcherly murder." D. Webster. What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly, This deadly quarrel daily doth beget! Shak.

The business of a butcher. [Obs.]

c., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc. Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning. Wither. All her labor was but as a block Left in the quarry. Tenny…

Box elder, the ash-leaved maple (Negundo aceroides), of North America. -- Box holly, the butcher's broom (Russus aculeatus). -- Box thorn, a shrub (Lycium barbarum). -- Box tree, the tree variety of the common box.

to a long wooden handle; -- so called because originally made of the twigs of the broom. Butcher's broom, a plant (Ruscus aculeatus) of the Smilax family, used by butchers for brooms to sweep their blocks; -- called also knee holly. See Cladophyll. -- Dyer's broom, a species of mignonette (Reseda luteola), used for d…

d. If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher. Shak.

A light business wagon used by bakers, grocerymen, butchers, atc.

Act of cutting by strokes. Chopping block, a solid block of wood on which butchers and others chop meat, etc. -- Chopping knife, a knife for chopping or mincing meat, vegetables, etc.; -- usually with a handle at the back of the blade instead of at the end.

One who cleaves, or that which cleaves; especially, a butcher's instrument for cutting animal bodies into joints or pieces.

The mesentery of a beast; -- so called by butchers. Carrion crow. See under Carrion. -- Crow blackbird (Zoöl.), an American bird (Quiscalus quiscula); -- called also purple grackle. -- Crow pheasant (Zoöl.), an Indian cuckoo; the common coucal. It is believed by the natives to give omens. See Coucal. -- Crow shrike…

A butcher. A flesher on a block had laid his whittle down. Macaulay.

A stick crooked like a horse's hind leg; -- used by butchers in suspending slaughtered animals. Gambrel roof (Arch.), a curb roof having the same section in all parts, with a lower steeper slope and an upper and flatter one, so that each gable is pentagonal in form.

A piece cut by butchers, esp. in pork, from either the front or hind leg, just above the foot.

., British Museum. [Monmouth] then accosted John Ketch, the executioner, a wretch who had butchered many brave and noble victims, and whose name has, during a century and a half, been vulgarly given to all who have succeeded him in his odious office. Macaulay.

Any one of the large pieces of meat, as cut into portions by the butcher for roasting.

A mass or lump of fat rolled up by the butcher. [Obs.] Shak.