Forms: 4 bocherie, 5 bocheri, 5–6 bochery(e, buchery, 6 boucherie, bouchery(e, bochery, butcherie, 6– butchery. [a. F. boucherie (13th c. in Littré): see BUTCHER sb. and -Y3.]
1. A slaughter-house, shambles; a butcher’s shop or stall; also attrib. (Now chiefly applied to the slaughterhouses in public establishments, as barracks, etc., in a camp, or on shipboard.)
c. 1340. Ayenb., 64. Þise him tobrekeþ smaller þanne me deþ þet zuyn ine bocherie.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. x. 25. Al thing that cometh in the bocherie, ete ȝe.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 495. He was … hanged vpon a tree lyke as an oxe is hanged in the bochery.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 189. A streame of congeled blud as thoughe it had runne from a bouchery.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 299. Five shepherds were conducting eight hundred sheep to the butcheries at Marseilles.
1870. Daily News, 23 Sept., 6/2. The bakery, the butchery, the magazines are all models of cleanliness and foresight.
1882. Standard, 11 Sept., 2/1. Employed in connection with the bakery and butchery train.
b. fig.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxxi. 501. What shall all Hierusalem be but a verie Slaughterhouse and Butcherie?
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. iii. 27. This house is but a butcherie: Abhorre it, feare it, doe not enter it.
1646. Sir J. Temple, Irish Rebell., 94. The whole County, as it were, a common Butchery.
2. The trade or craft of a butcher. Now only attrib., as in butchery business.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. x. 49. Tailour craft … sadeler craft., bocheri … masonrie.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., 112. They counte huntynge … the vyleste … part of boucherie.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Sweetbread, A Butchery and Culinary Term.
1886. Auckland Even. Star, 25 June, 1/2. Butchery Business for Sale.
† 3. Butchers collectively or as a community. Obs.
c. 1475. Bk. Found. St. Barthol. Ch. (1886), Introd. 70. Whan this was dyvulgate, by all the bocherie, for a wurthy myracle … it was toke.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xviii. 35. Jaques Dandenboure founde all tho of the bochery well enclyned.
† 4. Place of torture or torment: L. carnificīna, F. boucherie, applied to a horrible prison. Obs.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, II. (1822), 140. He wes nocht condampnit to service, bot erar to presoun and bouchery.
5. Cruel and wanton slaughter, carnage. Also fig.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., Pref. The doctrine … is a deadly butcherie of soules.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., X. lvii. (1612), 251. The ciuill Warres and Butcheries in France.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., iii. 77. He began boasting of his fights, his cruelties and his butcheries.
† b. Torture, torment. Obs.
1592. trans. Junius on Rev. xvi. 2. That torture of butcherie of conscience.
