subs. (cards’).—1. The king: Fr. bœuf: when card-playing in public houses was common, the kings were called butchers, the queens, bitches, and the knaves, jacks: this last is now in general use.
2. (American).—A small-boy vendor of ‘varieties’ and ‘notions’ on railway cars—at once a convenience and a ‘terror.’
3. (thieves’).—The prison doctor: also (general) = a pox-doctor.
4. (South Australian).—A long drink of beer, so-called (it is said) because the men of a certain butchery in Adelaide used this refreshment regularly; cf. ‘porter’ in England, after the drink of the old London porters.
5. (literary).—A slashing critic. As verb = to murder a reputation; to mangle an author’s lines.
TO BUTCHER ABOUT, verb phr. (Wellington College).—To make a great noise; to humbug about.
